FSE

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Arthur found himself sitting in his office overlooking both the Stables of Fun and Stables of Love showrooms, though at the moment he was attempting to balance his inventory sheets that Abara had just given him. While the leather stallion was useful in a great variety of things penmanship was definitely not one of them and more than once the sheep had to hold up a magnifying glass just to figure out what some of the numbers were. To make things worse there was a strange beeping noise he kept hearing and wasn’t sure where it was coming from; the smoke detector downstairs wasn’t going off and he didn’t have anyone trying to contact him on the phone. With enough work stacked up on his desk as it was and his assistant out for a few days he just decided to ignore it, which had gone swimmingly for him until he heard a knock at the door.

“Hey Boss,” Kaitos, the other leather stallion that was his second in command, said as he poked his muzzle in. “Vincenzo just called the front desk, he said that he had been trying to get in contact with you for the last hour or so and you’re not responding. He wanted us to come up here and make sure that you’re not dead.”

“I assure you that I am far too busy to be dead,” Arthur said as he put the magnifying glass down. “Plus no one has been contacting me, the phone hasn’t rang once since I’ve been up here.” There was a moment of pause as there was another beep, Kaitos blinking slightly as he seemed to just stare at Arthur as another one went off. “Well?”

“Sir, I think he’s trying to get a hold of you… through your computer…” Kaitos said as he pointed to the device that sat mostly unused on the sheep’s desk.

“What, he can’t use a phone like everyone else?” Arthur said as he turned to look at the screen, which was black until Kaitos tiptoed over on his hooved feet and moved the mouse for him to turn it on and reveal the call waiting box that was flashing in the middle of it. “I swear Lord Haleon and his minions make things senselessly complicated. This is a plushie shop, not a naval base.”

Kaitos was already at the door by that point and just gave Arthur a thumbs-up before closing the door behind him as Vincenzo suddenly appeared on the screen. “You got stuffing in your ears or something?” the robotic vulture said as soon as the video call appeared on the screen. “I specifically set up your computer to alert you with an audio tone, I would have kicked the connection on myself but then you would have accused me of spying.”

“What do you want Vincenzo?” Arthur said as he tapped his fingers on the desk.

“Well, considering that we’re supposed to be working together in the spirit of partnership and all between our two nexus lords I wanted to invite you over to do a beta run of some new tech,” Vincenzo explained. “After that living circuit cored plushie that we created Master Haleon wants to see if we can do something that will allow real people to be completely integrated into a digital space, sort of like plugging in a peripheral to… you know what, never mind on that, it’s going to be cool games that people who are turned into living circuits can interact in.”

“Alright… but what can we do to help in that regard?” Arthur asked.

“Well we can’t have walking crystalline creature running around and as I said before Tex had a good thing going with him,” Vincenzo stated. “Listen, just come down and check it out, if we do well on this I think Master Haleon and Lord Santer will be very pleased. It’ll probably just take a few hours.”

Though his eyes were painted on Arthur made a side-long glance at the stack of paperwork that was on his desk. “You know that I’m in the middle of inventory right now,” Arthur stated. “Now may not be the best time.”

“Yeah, I thought you might give that lame excuse,” Vincenzo said. “So I sent down someone that is going to help you get organized for once. Of course, if you still don’t want to come you can always stay in your office with him.”

Before Arthur could ask what that meant the vulture smirked at him before hanging up, Arthur sighing and shaking his head before going to pick up his magnifying glass again to at least finish this inventory sheet. A few seconds later though he dropped it as the door was practically kicked open, a hawk synth standing there with glowing red LED eyes and a metal beak turned up in a manic grin. “Who’s ready to get ORGANIZED!” Seban practically shouted as loud rock music began to play from somewhere in the synth’s body as he went over to the desk and began to scan through all the sheets on the desk.

“I’m… going to go…” Arthur replied with a sigh as he grabbed his cane and left his office just as he heard the sounds of shredding coming from where the synth was standing. As he made his way down to the break room he saw Abara and Kaitos standing there, tapping his cane to get their attention before pointing at him. “Watch. Him.”

About twenty minutes later Arthur found himself at the Vulture’s Roost gaming store, a place that used to draw his ire and now merely causes his wool to itch as he went around to the back. Though normally he wouldn’t go out during the day most people just assumed he was a mascot for something, sometimes even the Stables of Fun, and considering Vincenzo sent one of his most annoying of synths to get him here he may as well see what it was. When he went through the back he found that the virtual den that he had set up was completely empty, save for the robotic vulture himself who clicked his metal beak upon seeing him. Illias was also there, the synth crane who was Vincenzo’s second in command bowing a bit upon his approach.

“I’m going to repay you for that,” Arthur muttered as he sat down in the chair.

“Oh, there’s no charge for his aid,” Vincenzo replied with a snicker before gesturing over towards the small green crystal. “Now, this is a prototype based off of what we worked on earlier that will allow for integration into the digital landscape. Since technology here is still at a relatively early stage we don’t have to worry much about outside interference, and if we’re correct then we should get a plushie that can not only integrate with the digital world that we had set up here.”

“So you want me to swallow that crystal or something?” Arthur asked.

“No,” Vincenzo replied, which if Arthur had the physical capacity to frown he would at this point. “Aside from being so out of date with tech that you probably wouldn’t understand what I’m going to tell you I feel like you would be a bias source of information, plus I don’t want to hear you complain the entire time. That’s why I want Charlie.”

It took a few seconds before Arthur realized what Vincenzo was talking about, causing him to stand up and grip his cane tightly. “The unicorn?!” Arthur practically shouted. “What sort of ruse is this?”

“No ruse, no traps, nothing like that,” Vincenzo quickly retorted. “You turn back to Charlie and we have your power and his blissful ignorance of what is going on here. He still thinks that he’s working for you after all, right?”

Though Arthur continued to squeeze his cane he could at least understand where the vulture was coming from. He had created Charlie himself after all in order to do a secret shopper of sorts to get an idea of how the Stables were doing, was it really wrong of the vulture to want the same? The fact that he was going to be a leather unicorn being led around by his former arch enemy wasn’t ideal but Master Santer had told him to get along with the minions of his brethren. Plus if he didn’t he would have to go back to his office… with Seban the robohawk still probably there.

Though normally Arthur would have one of the two leather stallions get him into the proper mindset Vincenzo said that they can take care of that while they transition him into the digital world. The goal was to start him off as an avatar and see if he could find his way back to the crystal that they would attune to him. If he could do that they knew that they were on the right track to create independent living avatars that could possess physical bodies of their own even in a technologically limited world. Most of it went over Arthur’s head but he figured that he had gotten the gist of it and went over with Vincenzo to one of the pods that he used to convert people into his minions.

“Relax, we’ll be keeping track of you the entire time,” Vincenzo said. “Illias will also be in the virtual world to keep watch and make sure you don’t experience any… side-effects.”

“Now you tell me,” Arthur said with a sigh as the robotic vulture began to lower the lid of the pod, only for the plushie to stop it when he noticed a heavily pierced leather deer man sitting at one of the desks reading a magazine. “What’s he doing here?”

“Quality control,” Vincenzo said as he snatched the cane from Arthur’s hand, the two slapping at each other a bit before the robot vulture held it away enough and pointed at him with a stern metallic finger making him sit back. “Have fun, Charlie.”

The pod sealed closed and before the plushie sheep could do anything he was suddenly enveloped in a bright white light. For more than a few moments nothing seemed to happen as he was suspended in this strange void bereft of anything. It was as if he was in a vast sea of nothingness… and then, slowly things began to rematerialize around him. When the creature came too he found himself staring up at the clear blue sky while the wind that wafted over him also rustled the leaves of the trees that towered overhead.

“Uggghhhh…” as the plushie creature slowly started to sit up a hand went to his head, which as he slid it against his forehead he found the fingers bumping up against the horn that was in the middle of it. “What in the world…” as Charlie looked around he found himself on a beach that was bordered by an ocean that was sprawled out before him, an almost idyllic landscape as the unicorn slowly got up to his feet. “Wait, is this another one of those candy mountain places?”

A loud explosion suddenly interrupted the peaceful tranquility of the surrounding area and the leather unicorn looked around rapidly in order to try and figure out where it came from. When he couldn’t get a bead on the noise he did the first thing that came to mind and found the nearest grouping of bushes to dive into. Charlie waited quietly while peeking out from a gap in the shrubbery, while it was not the most ideal place for a seven-foot-tall white leather unicorn to hide in it was either that or make a run for the ocean. It seemed his need to hide was unwarranted however and when he poked his head back up there were no other noises save for the waves washing against the sands of the beach.

Not really much to go on for what to do, Charlie thought to himself, and the last thing he remembered he was being called into his boss’ office for something that he couldn’t quite remember. Was this something to do with it, he wondered as he stepped back out onto the beach, and as he tried to get a bearing on what to do he felt something inside him that was giving him a vague direction of what to go. Though he couldn’t see anything if he waited long enough he could start to get a sense of where whatever was calling him happened to be located, which thankfully was opposite the ocean he ended up on the beach of. That did mean going into the woods where he heard the explosion, and while he still wasn’t sure of what that was he decided to go forward and see where the path took him at least.

A few minutes later Charlie found himself at a fork in the road, and though he was still having a vague idea of where he was going he wasn’t sure which path to take that would get him there. “I guess… right works,” Charlie muttered to himself as he began to walk down it only to find that he was quickly fighting through thick underbrush, but he could see a light on the other side that indicated he was through the dense vegetation. “Thank goodness I’m got a thick hiiiiaaAAHAHHHHH!”

As soon as Charlie broke through the next step his hooved foot landed on was air, and before he could stop himself he found himself tumbling head over heels after falling off the steep cliff face. When he finally righted himself it was just in time to see the rocks and trees of the ground rushing up to him. Instinctively he closed his eyes and put his arms in front of his head in a vain effort to soften the blow…

“GAH!” Charlie bolted upright as he suddenly found himself lying on the ground, but not in the crushed to death from a massive fall way like he was expecting. As he was still breathing heavily through his nostrils he happened to see the ocean sprawled out before him, a surprisingly familiar site as he found himself looking around. “Was it… a dream?”

As he slowly got to his feet a sudden explosion reverberated through the area, causing him to duck down and immediately look for a place to hide. As he spotted a grove of bushes however the unicorn found himself realizing that this was all definitely familiar… and once more as he stood there he could feel the faintest tug of something that laid in the forest. Alright, Charlie thought to himself, whatever this was he wouldn’t figure it out lying on a beach. He found the nearby path and began to walk down it, only to find himself at the same fork.

“Yep, not going right this time,” Charlie said as he made his way down the left path. As he made his way down he continued to eye things up cautiously, and as he was about to head into a clearing he saw the nearby bushes move. With nothing to defend himself all he could do was back away, only to see a small snake slither out from the bushes. “Oh, that’s not so bad.”

As Charlie began to move forward again he suddenly felt a pressure just above his hoof, and when the leather creature looked down his eyes widened when he saw that the snake had bit him! “Hey, get off me you little bastard!” Charlie shouted, trying to kick out in order to get the snake off of him… though very quickly the world began to spin around him as the unicorn stopped and looked at the little snake before starting to fall forwards. “What the he…”

Charlie found himself opening his eyes once more and found himself staring up at the serene blue skies, wind gently ruffling the trees above him… but the unicorn wasn’t feeling serene at all as he practically jumped up and stared angrily at the woods. “Oh, that’s how you want to play this?!” Charlie shouted, only for an explosion to cause him to jump before he sighed and put his hand against his head before glaring at the woods. “Alright murder forest, let’s dance…”

After the fifth try Charlie managed to get past the initial set of traps and a few others that had managed to best him and eventually get out of the forest clearing, finding himself next to a small cabin that was settled into the woods a little deeper in. While the thing that was calling to him could be felt a little more strongly it was clear he wasn’t there yet, and while he could just keep going on the path he decided to check it out. After a quick look for any traps or anything else that might send him back to the starting point he found that there didn’t seem to be anything in there. Even as he stepped inside he kept a weary eye for swarms of spiders or whatever else this place might have in store for him.

But there was nothing really there, though he did find a satchel that he could use. Since he didn’t have any pockets or clothes for that matter it might be useful if he needed to bring something along with him. As he looked around however he didn’t see anything that stood out to him as a useful item and instead just took the satchel to go. At least he knew that this was a relatively safe place to be, Charlie thought to himself, and after taking some time inspecting the shelves and even having a lie down on the bed to find it quite nice he decided to keep going.

Not far from the cabin though Charlie heard a rustling in the bushes and was about to step back when he saw something drop down in front of him. “Hello there,” the snake said, this one much larger than the first one that kept trying to poison him. “What’s your name?”

“Uh, it’s Charlie,” Charlie replied as he continued to eye up the large serpent wearily.

“What a coincidence,” the snake stated. “My name is Charlie too. You are quite handsome.”

Charlie was about to reply thanking him, but as he continued to stare into those eyes he noticed that they weren’t quite a solid yellow like he had thought. There were other colors in there too and the more he looked into them the more that he found his hands that were in front of his chest relaxing. “That’s it, just keep staring,” the snake said as more of his body came down from the tree. “You don’t have to answer, I know that you have a very, very nice body.”

All Charlie could do was nod as he felt the coils of the snake starting to constrict around him, though as a plushie that didn’t really bother him as he found the head of the creature once more in front of him with a sinister smile on his face.

“I think I’ll take that too.”

There was a moment where Charlie’s mind registered what was being said, but it was hard to think with those eyes in front of him continuing to glow brightly with multiple hues. He hadn’t even realized that he was rock hard until he felt the coils of the snake start to slide against it, though as one in particular slid by he let out a groan as it popped into the anal vent of the other creature. With the snake being almost as big as he was it had nearly covered his entire body with its own with Charlie just staring off into space as his eyes glowed with the same hypnotic coloration while he was being pleasured. The feeling of those inner walls squeezing around his leather shaft was so euphoric he didn’t even realize that the head of the snake had slithered down and began to envelop his shaft.

As the snake continued to slither down his body Charlie began to feel something tickling at his feet, though with the coil that was around his groin shifting back and forth to continue to keep him drowned in pleasure he didn’t notice that it was the head of the snake starting to envelop his hooves. While it could have probably just done it the snake was clearly enjoying himself as suddenly the unicorn found himself lying down, the creature wrapped around him slowly moving up his leather calves while the rest of his body shifted upwards to clear it. Soon his feet were completely bound together and as it continued to swallow him down it wasn’t till the vent that was smothering his cock pulled away and he felt the scaly lips of the creature tickle against the shaft before that was enveloped and formed a lump in the snake’s lower jaw. With the hypnotic trance broken Charlie finally realized what was happening to him, but with the coils pinning his arms together and his lower legs completely engulfed all he could do was struggle.

“Hey, don’t do that!” Charlie shouted at the snake as the last of the hypnotic hues left his eyes, grunting a bit as the snake responded by having his coils move further up his body while the maw of the snake moved up to his abs. “I have no nutritional value!” The creature that had captured him seemed to have no desire to stop though and by the time the coils moved off of his arms it was replaced by the gaping maw of the creature as it moved up to his chest just underneath his pectorals. By this point most of the serpent had to slide off him in order to cover his body and hooves could be seen bulging out the tip something strange began to happen, he could feel the body of the creature seemed to suction against his limbs as it was pulled up further by the ravenous snake.

When he felt the lips reach up to his neck Charlie’s struggles almost seemed like they were making headway, but as he felt his arms stretching out the body of the creature that same weird feeling came over them. It was like the scales were adhering to his form, though at the moment his attention was more on the fact the head of the snake was just behind his own. “I hope you choke,” Charlie said before one final surge caused the head of the serpent to clamp down over his own, the only things that he could get out was a few muffled grunts before the snake slurped his muzzle up.

As the last of Charlie was covered the legs of the unicorn had split once more, the scales of the creature becoming almost rubbery as a third limb formed on the back that turned into a serpentine tail. The snake looked down at the hooved feet he had acquired and as the hypnotic hue returned to his eyes the snake once more opened his maw to show only his forked tongue remain. “Like I said,” the new Charlie said as the snake morph ran his hands down his new muscular body, smirking as the other went to touch the horn that he had also inherited. “It is a very nice body…”

Charlie found himself flailing as he gasped and opened his eyes and found himself back at the beach, groaning as he put his hand to his head as the explosion eventually went off while he sat there. “Stupid body-stealing snake…” Charlie grumbled to himself as he got back onto his own hooves, rolling his neck to crack it even though he was leather and stuffing and therefore had no bones. “You want to play hypnosis eyes huh, I think I know how to counter that…”

About ten minutes later Charlie left the cabin with the satchel once more by his side, this time keeping one hand inside of it as he made his way down the path once more. He should have known that when he was given a chance to have items that he might have needed them, and this time when the snake dropped down he was ready for it. “Hello there,” the snake said with a delight hiss. “What’s your name?”

“Ouroboros,” Charlie replied simply as he took the item he had been holding onto and held it in front of his face.

“What a coincidence,” the snake said, his words halting slightly as he saw his own hypnotic eyes in the mirror that Charlie had held up. “That’s… my name…”

“Oh, is it now?” Charlie replied as he took the tape and rope that he had also found in the cabin and used it to tie the mirror to the face of the snake. “Well that’s not a surprise, since you want a body so bad I think I know where one is.” Once he was sure that the snake was trapped in his own hypnotic enthrallment he grabbed his tail and stuffed it into the snake’s own maw, snickering to himself before heading down the path. “Not my proudest moment, but that really felt good.”

About twenty minutes later and two double-backs to the cabin in order to get items he didn’t realize he would need Charlie found himself in front of some sort of ancient ruins that the forest gave way too. It was a pyramidal structure and had columns that rose up on either side, along with a river that ran along it. Probably led to the ocean if he needed, the unicorn mused, though he had no intention of ever seeing that again. With the hypno snake vanquished it was time to finally figure out what was calling to him… only to put a hoof on the step and find it sink down beneath his weight.

“What the…” Charlie said before turning just in time to see a face carved into the nearby column with an open mouth fire something, the unicorn’s eyes widening as he was suddenly found an arrow embedded in his knee. “Son of a bi-“ The unicorn found himself staggering from the impact and fell off the stairs, landing in the nearby river.

When Charlie sat up again he found himself spitting out water as he got up angrily, looking back at the forest as the explosion happened. “An arrow to the knee?!” Charlie shouted. “You stopped my adventure because I took an arrow to the knee?! Who does something like that!?!”

***********

In the real world the robotic vulture and synth crane both looked over at the punk leather deer that was still reading the magazine, looking up as he felt their eyes on them. “What?” the deer said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I’m a fan of references, it’s really your fault for having me write this for you.”

*********

About two hours later Charlie found himself at the stairs of the ruins… again… this time actually getting it inside after finding that the shading of the rocks on the stairs was what mattered to avoid being hit by arrows and falling back into the rivers. Then there was the spike trap, the flaming dragon heads, the mosaic puzzle, and finally he was at the central chamber at the heart of the pyramid. At this point the unicorn had lost track of how many times he had restarted on that stupid beach, but as he could feel the connection inside him growing he knew that he had to be getting at least somewhat close.

Just as he walked through the main door and started to head down the stairs that led to the large dais in the middle of the room he heard a rumbling that caused him to turn around. He let out a gasp as he saw the stones that he had just walked under crumble down and block his path, and as he looked back to the dais he saw that there was some sort of shadowy figure that floated over it. “Foolish mortal,” the entity spoke, the voice causing Charlie to tremble slightly. “You have entered what was meant to be my eternal tomb, now with your help I shall finally escape.”

“Wait, what?” Charlie said in shock. “Are you supposed to be the final battle or something? I don’t even have a sword or magic or anything!”

“Such things would not harm a creature of shadow,” the entity mocked. “The bindings around me have weakened and will allow me to make you my vessel, and through you I will rule the world!” A dark, echoing laughter continued to reverberate through the chamber as Charlie found a chill start to settle around him. Whatever had just happened felt like it was leeching heat through his body, and through he was still in control of his faculties he could feel it starting to slip as an alien psyche began to fill his mind.

So this creature said that he’s made of shadow, and that this place was supposed to be his prison. As he looked up he saw that there was a shaft that led upwards and from it a square of light was actually what lit this place up. Perhaps that was the key, he thought to himself as he began to rub his hands together, and as he went to the dais he found that long with the sunlight there were a number of holes that were on the top of it. On a hunch he climbed up to the top of the stone and went into the spot where the light was shining down, which as he did he found the icy grip of whatever was cursing or corrupting him had lessened a bit.

So it’s a light puzzle, Charlie thought to himself, and he guessed that whatever went around the middle of it would do something to keep this shadow entity at bay? He didn’t need to imprison it for long, he realized, he just needed to stop it from doing whatever it was to him as he began to see the tips of his leather fingers darken. Since there was no way to get back he would need to find what he needed there and as he looked down at the dais he still stood on he found flecks of what looked like crystal shattered on the ground. So something… with mirrors perhaps?

Charlie began to look around for some type of reflective surface, but as darkness began to creep into his vision he couldn’t find anything that he was looking for. Not even a plate or anything that the statues were holding or were at their feet. After a few minutes of looking he found himself panting and could start to feel his breath getting cold, which was he looked down he saw that he was breathing out black wisps. This creature was moving fast, and as he tried to go back to the dais again he groaned and hunched forward as he felt something shift about inside of him. Inside his mind it was telling him not to bother, that as his vessel he would do so much more as he felt something push out the leather of his chest and actually saw a handprint for a brief moment coming from the inside of his body.

There was also something else he was feeling, the unicorn groaning slightly as there was another presence besides the growing one inside his body. He supposed it still technically was though as he could feel the ghostly tendrils of the creature starting to manifest, feeling it around his throat and slowly snaking into his mouth while the shadowy entity was also spreading open his tailhole with another. Aside from continuing to possess him it was also distracting him as he tried to keep moving forward while having something starting to slide into his synthetic tailhole while another was teasing down into his throat. Since they were ethereal in nature he couldn’t do anything to dispel them and just as he noticed that there was something that one of the larger statues held that glinted another tentacle coiled around his erection and started to stroke that.

Though it was getting harder to move with the entity whispering to give in more strongly with each passing second he found that the statue further back on the entrance hall was holding some sort of small scepter in his hand. Since he had been looking for mirrors he overlooked it, but his vision faded he could see that it was make out of some sort of crystal. But there were four holes in that dais and before he could get even close to the first one the tentacle in his tailhole and mouth had fully manifested while his cock was being stroked more vigorously than before. As he fell to his knees he could feel the creature within growing stronger, the leather of his chest and abs becoming darker as handprints formed on it while being stretched from the inside, even a face pushing its way out as Charlie found his head tilting back and the tentacle stretching out the entirety of his throat.

Too late… it was the last words that Charlie’s mind thought before the entity completely corrupted them, his eyes turning into solid black orbs as another tentacle joined the first in stretching out his rear. Even with no ability to move his limbs he could still feel everything as the darkness spread over his body, which became sculpted and more defined as a mane of pure shadow erupted from his back. Soon the tentacle that was sliding up and down his sensitive shaft was replaced with a clawed hand as a pair of fangs grew from the equine muzzle. The hips of this new nightmarish creature thrusted up as the one controlling his body let out a laugh using a heavily corrupted version of his own voice.

“Finally…” the nightmare said as he began to use both hands to stroke, Charlie feelings those tendrils continue to wiggle into his mind until there was only the desire to take over the world and sate his lusts on anything in his way. “Now the world will truly know me as I breed my new herd of shadow stallions to take over this pathetic world!” The creature that had been the unicorn stood up, his black horn glinting in the light as he gave his much larger maleness a squeeze. “No one can stop me now!”

**********

In the real world the leather deer once more looked at his magazine to see that Vincenzo and Illias were staring at him, the vulture gesturing towards the screen as though to do something. “What, you didn’t want to see how that played out?” the deer asked, the eyes of both avians narrowing at him. “Alright, fine, geez… you know there are some out there that would appreciate a scenario like that…”

**********

Charlie gasped as he stared up into the sky, the warm sun on his leather body a welcome warmth as he found himself shuddering from the shadow possession. Of course, the holes on the dais represented where in the room the statues were that would give him the crystals to bind it, though as he looked out at the ocean he found himself sighing and rubbing his head. “Not sure I want to run through all that again at the moment,” Charlie said as he heard the explosion that opened the temple for him to explore and supposedly kicked off whatever that creature was to escape. “You know… it’s not like anyone is making me go on this thing…”

About what felt like an hour later Charlie was sitting on that same beach, leaning back on the chair he had repurposed from the cabin while also sipping from a tankard full of ale he had happened to find as well. This wasn’t so bad, the unicorn thought to himself, and it wasn’t like anything was there that would make him have to leave this sun-kissed beach. It was actually rather nice here and though he continued to feel the ping of what was probably his objective he scoffed and just continued to have a nice drink on a sunny day. Perhaps he would go out for a swim later, the unicorn thought to himself until there a noise that was unlike anything he had heard before.

As Charlie looked up he saw that the ocean had receded quite a bit, in fact as he looked out he noticed that there was a lot of wet sand between him and the horizon. Well that can’t be good… as he continued to sit there he found himself growing wide eyed as the sun he had been enjoying was suddenly blotted out by a wall of water. It was a massive tsunami, and as it continued to shadow him he found himself swallowing hard. Definitely not going to survive this, and as the wave of water came boring down on him the only thing he think of doing was downing the contents of his tankard as fast as possible before he was suddenly blown completely backwards.

The next second Charlie found himself looking back up at the sky, the unicorn spitting out a steady stream of water as he slowly sat up and wiped his mane out of his eyes. “Alright, you made your point,” Charlie said as he got up as he heard the explosion, trying to shake off the residual water that hadn’t soaked into his body. “Off to the woods I go…”

It was another half an hour before Charlie found himself putting the last crystal key into the dais, black tendrils snaking their way up the otherwise white leather of his arms from the corruption that was seeping into him. Already the shadow was starting to manifest itself but with the last piece of the puzzle in place he had just to just move it in the correct spot, something he didn’t realize the last time he had gone through this and failed. He could hear the entity protesting loudly but at this point he was ready to take this thing down, and as soon as it locked into place he could feel the entire temple shaking. Something was happening above and as what looked like something locked into place on top of the pyramidal structure it caused a radiant beam of light to bath the entire dais, which included Charlie as the tendrils that had been on his body evaporated.

The entity screamed and cursed him, but by that point Charlie was exhausted with having to fight off the corruption to do anything more than lay there for a little bit. He watched as the last of the creature disappeared and as he continued to lie there he found that something was happening underneath him. Feeling something rise up underneath prompted him to slide off the stone and when he got on the floor he turned around to see a mirror-like object appear and reflect the light. It bounced around the room a few times before landing on a section of wall that in this newfound illumination looked darker than the others, but when the beam hit it the stone disappeared and revealed the passage beyond.

With the way finally clear Charlie breathed a sigh of relief as he walked through to the other side, which revealed another smaller room and a statue of a feline surrounded by a pool of water that had on a pair of golden metal bracers. There was also another passage that led out but considering everything he went through so far he wondered if this was a reward. He certainly deserved it, and after making sure that the water wasn’t actually acid or housed some sort of tentacular sea creature he hoped into the ankle deep water and went over to it. Though the statue of the leopard-tiger hybrid was familiar he couldn’t quite place where it was from, shrugging his shoulders and wearily looking around the statue for traps before carefully taking them off.

Though they were fairly heavy the gold bracers were lighter than he had thought and though a bit big decided to try them on to see if he got anything from them. When he put the first on one it seemed to shrink a bit to fit, and then as he put the second one on it did the same as he felt a rush of power flow through him as he stood there in the water. “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about,” Charlie said with a grin as he adopted a fighting stance, punching the air a few times. “Now it’s Charlie’s time to shine.”

As did one last punch though his hand felt very… heavy, and he found his hands suddenly flopping to his side like someone had given him dumbbells to hold. He tried to move out of the pool of water but it felt as if he was moving in quicksand. With great effort Charlie managed to get his hands back up into the air, but he couldn’t unclench his fingers as he found that they were completely encased in the same gold as the bracers he wore! When he looked down he saw that underneath the surface of the water his hooves had turned the same color as it slowly spread up towards his ankles while he found his ankles locking into place.

A trapped item, really… and though Charlie wanted to voice his displeasure at the scenario he found that he couldn’t move his mouth as he saw tendrils of gold had already woven their way through the leather of his body. To add insult to injury it was an incredibly pleasurable sensation as he found his maleness stiffening twice, first when his arousal caused it to become completely erect and then again when he saw the cascading gold metal sweep over his groin and completely envelop his maleness. An aroused nude gold unicorn statue, as he felt his thoughts starting to slow down while the petrification crept up over his shoulders and over his muscular chest he imagined that this would be quite the treasure for anyone else that came that way.

Well, at least he was going to look good forever… it was the last thought that the unicorn managed to muster up before the gold completely swept up the back of his head and along his jaw. His already frozen mouth became completely shiny and his eyes nothing more than featureless orbs. Charlie could no longer even twitch as the bracers finished off creating a brand new statue, though his cock did seem to throb a bit. Finally the last of the gold finished off his horn with the light coming from the other room causing his body to gleam and the water beneath him to shimmer.

*********

“Huh, looks like it really was his time to shine,” the leather deer said, prompting the two synths to look up at him before shaking their heads while the pierced creature flipped a page in his magazine. “No one appreciates good puns these days… I am told by others that I have quite the piercing wit.” This time the two didn’t even look up, causing the deer to huff and keep reading.

*********

Once more Charlie found himself in the room with the statue, holding up a finger to it as he walked by. “Nope,” Charlie stated as he walked by. “Not this time statue.”

As he walked all the way down towards the next passageway he found himself in a smaller door that had a minotaur statue next to it but nothing really else of note. As he peeked his head in he saw that what he thought was another hallway actually had a series of doors in it, which given the minotaur statue that was out front made him think labyrinth. At this point the thrumming he felt was extremely close, and while he could say for sure he had to believe that whatever he was being led towards was at the end of this maze. He did a quick look around the room for anything that might help but with nothing that he could find he guessed that the answer had to lie within the labyrinth itself.

Well, there was always the tried and true method for solving a maze, Charlie putting his hand against the wall and using that in order to make his way around. Though it was a little harder with the doorframes and such he found that as he started to make his way in that he was thankful he started with that. All the walls looked the same and other than the occasional empty room there wasn’t anything that would indicate direction that he saw. As he got back from his first major set of dead ends and got to the first main hallway he saw that he was definitely going to have to keep going as the entranceway that he had come in through was completely bricked off.

That was fine, Charlie thought to himself as he continued on, it didn’t seem like there were any enemies in here and he hadn’t come across any traps yet. When he got to another dead end though he found himself snorting as he saw that there was nothing there and he eventually got to what he believed was the main hall again. Nothing yet… and considering the number of doors that he had gone down he was starting to think that this was going to take hours. That would be rather frustrating but he would need to have patience, but it was something that he was starting to wear thin on already as he scratched his shaggy mane and missed the two points that were starting to push through his forehead.

Eventually he got to yet another dead end and this time he found himself groaning as he put his hand to his face, which while it felt a bit more swollen than usual didn’t matter to him as he let out a snort. Lefts, rights, it was all getting far too confusing for him as he tried to double back the way he had come only to find that there was yet another dead end waiting for him. How did that happen, he should have been going back the way he came to get to that first hallway. As he continued to rub his leather head he began to feel something that had groan up from his skull, but even as his fingers played with the horns that were continuing to grow he realized something else as well.

He had taken his hand off the wall…

Charlie’s eyes widened and he let out a snort as he tried to find his way back, only for everything to start to blend in with one another. As he continued to move forward he had to stop occasionally as his muscles thickened, his back hunching over slightly as he began to forget even last few things that he had done in order to get to the spot he was. He began to grunt more often as his thoughts grew hazier by the second, soon forgetting even how to use words as his pectorals thickened and his arms swelled with new muscle. As his mane grew even shaggier it helped to frame his new horns as the unicorn one fell off, though at this point he didn’t even remember he had been one. Soon the leather minotaur remembered why he had been there now… he was supposed to find others that were venturing through his maze and punish them appropriately as a golden ring appeared in his nostrils...

Some time later Charlie blinked he found himself on the beach, laying there for a while as his brain felt like it had to kickstart again in order to get it thinking once more. He groaned as he put his hand to his head and felt his horn was still there but as he slowly sat up he thought about the problem at hand. At this point he had become a minotaur at least a dozen times and he was beginning to think that he was starting to carry over some of that numbness in the brain as he tried to think about to do. No matter what he tried he couldn’t seem to navigate the maze fast enough and he ended up just a bull man that was normally quite horny as let out a sigh.

There had to be something in that room that he was missing… but he looked everywhere and other than the minotaur statue that indicated that it was a maze he hadn’t found anything that would indicate a secret passage or map or anything. He even went back into the room where he had vanquished the evil entity and tried using stuff in there, but that just ended up with him in a rather compromising situation. He even put the bracers and tried to run into the room, but all that happened was that he turned into a gold minotaur statue instead of a gold unicorn statue. If it wasn’t for the fact that all it did was petrify things he would think that those items were a red herring, although as he stared out into the ocean he wondered if perhaps that power went both ways...

Eventually Charlie managed to make it back past the main hall and into the labyrinth entryway, but this time as he stood in front of the minotaur statue he had the gold bracers in hand. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of this before as he put the golden metal onto the arms of the creature one by one. Once they had shrunk down he saw the fingers beginning to move and the unicorn breathed a sigh of relief as the minotaur began to animate. One of his previous times he had been a minotaur just before he reset he seemed to know exactly where to go to get through the maze, he only hoped that this open would do the same and not attack him or something.

“Thank you for freeing me from my imprisonment,” The minotaur said. “Is there anything I can do to repay you?”

“Can you navigate me through that maze?”

“Of course,” the minotaur said, stepping off the pedestal he was on once he had reanimated completely.

“Thank god,” Charlie said. “Let’s move out!”

The minotaur moved forward and Charlie was right behind, making sure to keep close as he found that the heavily muscled bovine moved forward with purpose. As the maze twisted and turned the unicorn thought about trying to see if he could have figured it out but even without transforming and having his mind clouded he was having a really hard time trying to discern his direction. He could have tried to brute force this a hundred times and probably never gotten close, but with following the larger minotaur creature he eventually managed to get to what he believed was the final area. He could feel the pull on his chest and as the two walked to the threshold of the exit Charlie’s eyes widened as he saw a swirling green portal in the middle of a circular room with a walkway connecting it that seemed suspended above the darkness.

“What is that?” Charlie asked.

“I do not know, as I am not allowed to venture past the threshold,” The minotaur said as he gestured towards it. “That is where you must go though.”

“Wow, all those times and I’m finally here,” Charlie said as he breathed a sigh of relief before looking back towards the minotaur. “Thank you for the guidance, I would have never found my way without you.”

“It was the least I could do,” the minotaur said as Charlie suddenly found the larger and very muscular man take a step towards him. “Perhaps there is something else I can do for you before you leave and I return to my duties, it has been quite some time since I was able to engage with anyone.” Charlie found himself glancing towards the portal and then back to the minotaur as he realized this was probably a trap, and he would be silly to do something like that when the exit was right there. Of course… he did know how to get here now, and this guy was incredibly hot…

As Charlie began to feel the cock of the creature push past the loincloth he wore and start to rub up against his abs he threw caution to the win and leaned up his muzzle to kiss the bovine one that led him there. His tongue was thick as it pushed into his mouth and as they grew more passionate the unicorn found himself up against the wall as his own muscular body was pushed into as leather rubbed against fur. He found his legs up against the sides of the masculine creature and it wasn’t long before that thick rod was pushed inside of him, his leather hole able to take even the impressive girth of the minotaur’s cock. It didn’t take long before his stomach was being pushed up from the other man thrusting into him. their arms wrapped around one another as he could feel the muscles of the minotaur tense up.

But then it never untensed, and as he looked down he saw that the minotaur had turned back into stone with the bracers included. He had been right in the middle of another kiss with him and as the grey coloration crept into his own muzzle he began to feel a familiar stiffening sensation. The same feeling was happening in his tailhole as the cock would remain embedded completely in his tailhole while almost hilted. Even if he wasn’t turning to stone the beefy arms of the minotaur had wrapped around him while his arms and legs turned to solid rock around the other statue, the last thoughts in his mind before his eyes turned a slate grey and every hair on his head was petrified was that it was totally worth it…

*********

Once more the synth avians looked up from the screen, but this time as they looked over at the deer they saw that he was snapping his fingers before holding out his palm. “That’s right, pay up,” the pierced deer said as the two sighed before walking over and each handed him a hundred dollar bill as a smirk formed on his pierced cervine muzzle. “Never bet against a well-stacked gay horny minotaur.”

*********

Eventually the pod that had been sitting quiet in the corner opened up once more, the sheep that had been contained inside it groaning as he slowly got up and pulled himself out. While things were a bit hazy Arthur more or less remembered everything that had happened while he was Charlie, including finally getting through the portal to the end as he got to his feet and walked out into the main room. As he got into the central hub area though he was surprised to see a very familiar leather unicorn standing there being looked at by Illias, which prompted Arthur to do a double take and look down at himself. While he was all there both mentally and physically he still found himself starting at what was essentially himself, except that there was a thousand yard stare to the leather plushie as Vincenzo walked up to him.

“What the devil did you do?” Arthur said as he grabbed his cane back from the vulture and pointed it at Charlie.

“Relax, everything inside of him is a copy,” Vincenzo replied as he walked Arthur over and showed a seam in the chest that was exposed to reveal the core of living circuit material that was inside. “After we had attuned your Charlie persona and started to grow out the crystal we realized that our idea was more than just simply making shells for digital avatars. With each time you went through the simulation we were able to take the different versions of you and compile them together so that when you went through the portal it gave life to this version while the real you returned to yours.”

“I see…” Arthur said as he eyed the unicorn up wearily, especially as it started to blink and look around as though just waking up. “Well as long as you’re not thinking of cloning any of us here.”

“Doesn’t work that way,” Vincenzo replied simply as he began to walk the sheep out the door. “Only with alternate personalities, less complex and can grow into a full version of itself instead of cramming everything of yours in that stuffed body into something else.” As Arthur found himself nodding he suddenly realized that he was outside the door of the shop and Vincenzo had stepped back in while waving at him. “Thank you so much, make sure to send Seban back once you get to your office!”

As Arthur was about to respond Vincenzo closed the door on him, the vulture chuckling to himself as he went back towards the stuffed toy that they had created. “So did it really work?” Vincenzo asked as he saw the unicorn look at him. “How are you feeling Charlie?”

“Feeling… pretty good really,” Charlie said as he looked down at himself. “Kind of weird though, like I’m forgetting something. Do you think I left it in the digital realm?”

“Perhaps, but we’ll prepare something so that you can find it later,” Vincenzo said. “Why don’t you head into the shop and find a game to play while I speak with Illias here.” The unicorn nodded and made his way to the front of the shop, the two watching him walk off before they once more looked at each other. “Seems like we finally made a stable program.”

“Yeah, that was interesting thinking putting one of Arthur’s alts in there in order for the rest of the personality to grow on,” Illias said with a big grin on his face. “Perhaps we can find a few more that we can test it on, make some more plushies of their alter egos that can also interact in the digital world.”

At the mention of alters the robotic vulture glanced over at the pierced leather deer, who had put his magazine down and had gotten up with that coy grin still on his face. “I suppose you are going to be wanting your payment now,” Vincenzo said as he dropped a piece of the living circuit into the palm of the deer’s hand. “It seemed that your little scenario was just what we needed, considering that we had already done that with Arthur a few times without success until that moment.”

“Sometimes all you need is the hand of an outside technomancer,” the deer said as he brought up the stone to his eyes, the green glow glinting off of his own eyes as he found himself licking his lips. “So this is the living circuit that you guys used with Tex huh, I will admit the first time I saw him use this I was rather jealous. I suppose that’s not the case anymore.”

“Indeed,” Vincenzo replied as he began to walk the leather deer out the door. “So what do you intend to do with that anyway?”

The pierced leather deer just smirked before popping it into his mouth, swallowing it down like a pill before leaving the store himself. As the robot vulture watched him leave he found himself shuddering slightly as he wondered what someone that created the scenario they had just run Arthur would do with power like that…