(OOC note: The story has five species (four of which from the inspiration for the story, Etrian Odyssey V), which I can’t figure out how to naturally work into the story so I’ll say it here; humans, then celestrians (blue, magic-y elves), therians (rabbit-eared/tailed people with superhuman strength), brounies (mix of dwarves and halflings). The fifth is “ex-monsters”, creatures of the Labyrinth that, upon being taken out of it, gained control of their own minds)

    “We should think of a name for the party.” Yumi said. “Something cool and exciting, so people don’t forget it.”

    “Why?” Erica questioned, “We’re part of the Adventurer’s Guild; officially, there isn’t such an official thing as a party.”

    “Party name! Party name!” Diane cheered, “I know it’s not an official thing, but everyone knows that parties exist, and if we plan to stick together we have to have a name!”

    “I propose we call ourselves the Lustful Ladies~ I’m sure that’ll bring plenty of cuties to us when we’re famous~” Agathe added. 

    “I-I don’t think we need to think about it right now… we’re all registered already, right? That’s the important part…” 

    The quintet of young women - two humans, a therian, a celestrian, and a brounie -  chattered away as they walked purposefully to the edge of town, towards an impossibly large tower that loomed over the landscape. As the topic of a party name died without a decision being made, Diane put on a nasally voice and launched into a monologue. “Ahead, you’ll see the famous Towering Labyrinth! None know why it was built or all that lies within, but legends say it holds the kinds of secrets that can change the world! Among other things. Tower Town, the place we were just staying-”

    “Why are you talking like that?” Erica asked.

    “It’s my tour guide voice!” 

    “Why do we need a tour guide? We all know this stuff-”

    “Let me do my bit, Yumi!” Diane retorted, and in response Yumi’s ears flopped down a little and she started muttering to herself. “Besides,” Diane continued, “Three of us aren’t from here. Anyways! Tower Town was built to serve as a home base to the adventurers who seek to challenge the Towering Labyrinth. It’s a focal point for pretty much all the town’s economy, since there are materials in the Tower like nothing else in the world! Of course, to get those materials, you have to go inside of it - and it’s a dangerous place! The rest of the world has monsters that kill you, but this place… this place has monsters that change you, transform you into one of them.” 

    “Which is why only licensed Adventurers can enter.” Erica finished for her, quite clearly annoyed. “You should be quiet, we’re nearly there and it wouldn’t do to make a poor first impression on the guards.”

    “Who cares what they think? They’re guards, and we’re going to be the world’s greatest adventurers.” Yumi said confidently. 

    “B-But they’re also the ones who say whether we can go in or not…” Aava muttered. Yumi and Diane quieted down after that. They’d all waited too long to risk that.

    Well behind the girls, enough so that they wouldn’t notice their approach, were several armored figures. “That’s them?” One said, a male voice. 

    “Yep.” said a female voice. “Right composition, fit the descriptions. Left earlier than they were supposed to, though.”

    “Well then. Guess we should get going too.”

    The guards seemed reluctant to let the girls in, but the guild identification seemed authentic. With anticipation and a bit of nervousness, the party stepped into the Tower. 

    The Towering Labyrinth does not make sense in it’s structure. For one, the moment you step inside you don’t seem to be inside of a tower anymore; you’re in whatever area the stratum is themed as - the party walked into the doors to a massive stone tower, and on the other side found an extensive hedge maze and garden, walls of green going for tens of meters up around them. The engraved iron doors seemed to loom over the area, entirely out of place; through them the entrance was visible, but there was nothing if you went around them. Scholars theorized that the doors were actually magical portals, and that the tower was not actually a tower at all but a landmark for where the first portal was. 

    The second strangeness is it’s organization into stratums; groups of floors sharing a “theme” that seem to have little connection with each other. The individual floors don’t often seem to have actual ceilings, unless the floor is “indoors”; this first floor was a garden but when they went upstairs, they’d be in the palace. And after so many floors, it would abruptly stop being a palace and become something else.

    And thirdly was the monsters. They liked to transform people instead of kill them. The stronger the monster, the stronger their powers to transform. And some of the monsters could look very human.

    The party only stopped to wonder at what they saw for a few moments. They had a mission here - their first mission as adventurers was to find and open up a shortcut further into the floor, and bring back a special flower used in medicine. 

    They had walked for only fifteen minutes when they encountered something. A woman, seemingly trimming one of the hedges and wearing a maid outfit. Erica tried to signal a stop, but Diane walked forward. “Hey! Are you another adventurer? Why are you trimming a hedge-” 

    “Stop, Diane, she’s not what she looks like-” Erica tried to say, while Yumi drew her sword. Diane, meanwhile, kept going until the maid turned around. 

    The maid, to a casual glance, could be mistaken for a human. But there were a few things that seemed distinctly off. Her perfectly still stance, the way her clothes didn’t move quite right for normal cloth, and most tellingly, her eyes - they didn’t have pupils, being only steely grey irises. She looked the party over, and curtsied. “Welcome to the Queen’s Palace. Have you come to submit?” she asked in a near monotone, the only change in tone being the questioning lilt of the second sentence. 

    “Submit to who? In what way? Are they cute?” Agathe asked.

    Diane blinked in surprise - “No, why would we? We’re here to climb.” 

    “Intruders, then.” The maid said. 

    One second she was standing stock still. The next she was lunging towards Diane, clippers outstretched like a sword. Diane moved on reflex, sidestepping the thrust and using it’s momentum to throw the maid away from her. The monster that looked like a maid skidded to a stop, unperturbed, and took something out of her pocket - a whistle. She blew it, and a group of maids looking exactly like the first descended from somewhere atop the hedgerows, each bearing knives, hedge clippers, or other sharp instruments. 

    It seemed a prelude to the rest of the floor, at least to start with. Yumi and Diane were up front attacking and Erica kept them safe, along with keeping the maids from getting past her to the back lines where Agathe produced spells and Aava healed the wounds the maids managed to make. But in the end, the identical enemies went down without lasting damage - it took some time and the party came out of it a little more tired than they entered, though.

    And that was just the first fight; after that first battle, off they went through the labyrinth, carefully mapping it as they went. Every so often they would encounter more maids, along with some butlers leading the groups sometimes, and once they were ambushed by what they had assumed were decorative statues but were actually golems. Overall, they were feeling good about the first expedition; the magic reserves of Agathe and Aava were only about a third of the way down, and they were half way to where the flower and short cut was supposed to be.

    Which was when they ran into the first major problem. 

    “One… two… three… go!” Yumi called, as the three frontliners bashed into the gate. It didn’t budge. They’d been sitting in the clearing for about fifteen minutes, trying to find a way to open the gate. 

    Agathe yawned. “Have you made any progress yet?”

    “No, it’s like trying to shoulder check a stone wall.” Yumi muttered. “You’re a Celestrian, aren’t you supposed to be able to sense magic?”

    “We checked already, dear. The gate is not magic.” Agathe spoke slowly, as if to a child. 

    “Well, it’s not opening, and there isn’t a lock or anything!” Yumi shouted. 

    Meanwhile, Aava was poking around with her staff. The clearing was largely featureless, besides the gate and a few topiaries. She cleared some of them out of the way, looking under them - and was surprised when she saw something. It looked like a pedestal, like the ones they’d seen statues standing on elsewhere in the labyrinth, just it was empty. Frowning, she poked at it with her healing staff. To her surprise, it lowered. “Hey, guys, I-I found something I think…“ she called out.

    Diane walked over. “Oh, what did you find? A magic key or something?”

    “I d-don’t know… I think it’s a pressure plate?” 

    “Great job, cutie~!” Agathe said cheerfully as she also approached - but stopped suddenly when she felt a strange chill. “Wait, don’t step-” 

    Aava had already stepped onto the plate, trying to get it to weigh down and open the gate. It went down a bit, but then stopped. “I don’t think I’m heavy enough-” she started to say, but then the plate started to glow bright blue. 

    While the change happened far too fast for the others to even try and stop, to Aava it went at a more sedate pace. It started at her feet, as she suddenly found herself unable to step off the plate - or move them at all for that matter, rooted to the spot. She couldn’t feel them and when she looked down, saw that her shoes had disappeared, and her feet had gone stark white-and-grey, like stone. The coloring crept up her body, the parts it touched going as still as her feet, although somehow she didn’t have any issues with balance. 

    At the start of it, Aava was panicking - she was changing, somehow, turning into something else. But the panic was smothered by a strange calm and certainty. She was becoming a statue, she knew - and she wouldn’t need to worry about the world outside anymore. But that didn’t seem right. The stone crept up her body, more of it going numb - but not before it started to stretch. What kind of statue was as small as she was? She didn’t know where the thought came from, but it seemed to guide the process as her body changed in two ways now, expanding and then petrifying. Her ass grew and then froze that way, and then the stone enshrined her now-shapely hips and waist for perpetuity as her clothes shredded from magic.. 

    It was like her mind was slowing down, her thoughts. She was becoming a statue. She was becoming a beautiful statue, and statues didn’t need to know their names so she stopped being Aava. She should pose for her unseen sculptor, she thought, and she did. Her upper body shifted to match the pose that her lower half had frozen in - a sexy, teasing pose that would fit her figure - as flesh was replaced with perfect marble. As her hair lengthened (a female statue with short hair? Preposterous) and her face began to freeze, whatever remained of her concerns washed away. She was beautiful, forever, and that was all she had to be. Statues didn’t need to think, either. So she stopped.

    Where Aava had been, a statue of a nude woman was, built for her pedestal. It somewhat resembled Aava in the face, but had in many ways been changed into another idealized human marble statue, nude with a lustful gaze and sexy pose. The gates creaked open. 

    The party stared for a few minutes, in shock. Then Erica coughed. “...If this mechanism works like we think it does, there is probably a plate on the other side.” she said, “And if we step on it she should wake up and be able to follow us.”

    The party proceeded cautiously into the area beyond the gate, reluctantly leaving their petrified friend behind for the moment - they’d either cure her with doing something on the other side, or else pick her up and bring her statue back to town for recovery if they had to bail out. But for the moment, they pressed on. Beyond the gate, it was mostly a “hallway” between hedges. It was fortunate no enemies appeared - without their healer it might start to get dicey if they had to stay in the labyrinth too much longer. 

    They came out of the “hallway” into a clearing, with a large fountain as the centerpiece and several more paths radiating off of it. This garden was like a hedge maze, and the nature of the labyrinth meant even just trying to stay pointed away from the path they came from wasn’t a sure thing for the right direction. “Which direction, you think?” Diana said. “I vote we go for the closest one. If there’s another plate, it would be pretty close, yeah?” 

    The girls looked between each other, shrugged, and pressed onwards. There was a lack of enemies compared to earlier. Maybe they’d thought that the intruders would be driven off by what had happened to Aava, which was fair - they were nearly right. But it did let them get a bit deeper into the maze. They walked for a good ten minutes down the path. And the discouragement was only worse when they came to a dead end. 

    “On the bright side, we don’t have to come down here again.” Diane posited as a silver lining.

    “I’d be fine with a dead end if there had been another plate at the end of it.” Erica muttered, while Yumi stabbed a hedge in frustration. Of course, her blade bounced off - the hedges were magic. It wouldn’t do for anyone to just cut their way through the first floor. 

    “Ohohoho~ Temper, temper!” A voice called from behind them. Down the path they had come from was now a woman, with a retinue of maids identical to the rest of the enemies they’d fought but for having white hair instead of black. The woman herself was… aggressively pink. Frilly pink dress, pink parasol, pink jewelry, pink highlights at the ends of her blonde hair. The woman twirled the parasol out from in front of her, allowing the light to show that she too had the pupil-less eyes of a monster. Which, of course, were pink. “What did that poor old bush do to you dearie? Nothing, you walked this way yourself! Of course, it’s obvious a commoner wouldn’t get any of that…”

    Yumi groaned and put a hand on her sword. Diane put up her fists. Erica raised her spear and Agathe readied her staff.

    “Why, how barbaric, to go for your weapons in response to polite correction!” the woman said as if shocked, but her grin made it quite clear otherwise. “It seems I, Lady Vivienne, will need to put you all in your places.” She flourished her parasol as if it were a weapon, and her maids and butlers darted forward to attack. 

    There were two things different here than to previous battles. Firstly, there was an enemy in the back casting magic and improving her minions. Secondly, the party lacked a healer. For all that, it seemed like they could still win. In the narrow hall, Erica had no problem interposing herself between the others and enemy attacks, stepping forward to block and then retreating to allow Yumi and Diane to get their hits in or a fireball to sail past. They were making steady progress through the ranks of servants, and their monstrous mistress was getting frustrated. “Damn that knight! Your job should be to serve me, not fight me! Butlers, bring her to me!” she said, raising her parasol. Two of the butlers started to glow faintly with the aura of a magical enhancement.

    This time, when Erica stepped forward to block, one of them moved quicker than expected - and instead of hitting the shield, or moving past it to hit her armor, he dropped his weapon and grabbed at her shield, using the momentum of the shield bash she’d been doing to pull her back. She grunted with the effort, and was about to pull back or drop the shield, when the second one darted in and pulled her by the shoulder. They both managed to knock her off balance and drag her back. 

    Yumi and Diane were surprised for a moment, but only that moment - they stepped forward to try and rescue Erica, only to be blocked by the maids. There were a lot of them, and these ones seemed hell bent on not letting them through. “Hold on! We’ll be there soon!” Yumi shouted as she cut down another monster in her way. 

    Lady Vivienne, as she’d called herself, laughed her irritating laugh as the butlers dragged Erica to the ground in front of her, having torn her spear and shield out of her hands and holding her down. “Ohohoho, not so tough without your weapons, are you?” she said, leaning down and cupping her face. Erica, in response, spat. 

    Vivienne’s face twisted in disgust. “Hmph. Not even the class to beg forgiveness. You’re not even worth being a servant.” The lady-in-waiting seemed to think for a few moments, “What to do with you, what to do… hm, yes, I’ve been needing a new one.” She nodded. She made a gesture with her finger, which started to glow pink. Then she tapped the struggling Erica on the head. 

    The light spread slowly across Erica’s body. While Aava’s transformation had been just short of instant, this one was slower - the others could watch what was done to their friend as they tried to blast through the maids to their mistress.

    Erica’s transformation began about thirty seconds after the magic was started; enemies such as this, while significantly stronger than your average labyrinth monster, could only transform slowly; it’s why they had retinues of weaker beings, to buy time. Her skin slowly took on a pinker color, similar in shade to the light. Her armor seemed to melt away, shifting lower as it also changed in shade. “W-What…” Erica managed to say, but that was all as her speech was stolen from her. She felt… lighter, somehow, despite the armor. More and more by the second. She couldn’t tell why, as she continued to lighten. It felt like her mind was stuffed with cotton. Or maybe silk was a better word. In a minute, her whole body, skin, hair, clothes, had turned pink.

    She felt it when her skin took a lighter texture, a smoother one. She felt as she started to… deflate, is the best word. The light had grown to the point she couldn’t be seen under it as she started to shrink, and shift. Her armor was part of her now, and shifted lower - although given how light she was now, it didn’t have a noticeable effect. She felt her body get aired out as parts of it developed holes, as her head sunk into the material of her chest and disappeared at the same time her legs pulled up and vanished. She could feel herself hollow out, space for a human body to be covered in her silk. She was made of silk now, she knew that too. She felt kinda pretty, really. Which was nice. She wanted to be pretty and… and to make someone else pretty. She wanted to be… worn. Like a good dress. 

    The light hadn’t yet faded when Yumi and Diane made it to Vivienne, but it was already too late. As the lady in waiting withdrew into a combat stance and the light faded, a garish pink dress dropped unceremoniously to the ground. Without her entourage, the lady was easily defeated, although she managed to get in a swipe on Yumi that quickly turned her hair partially white. She laughed as she melted away like all monsters did, secure in the knowledge she’d managed to add one transformation to her list of accomplishments. 

    The fighting died down when the lady in waiting was defeated, and the adventurers were quiet for a bit while Diane picked up the gown that had been Erica. “...We… should probably get out of here. We’re down two and we haven’t found a shortcut yet…”

    “Most likely, yes… we’ll have to get Aava back on the way. It’s almost too bad, Erica makes a pretty dress.” Agathe said. She went quiet when the other two glared. 

     The other two nodded, and the trio walked back towards the intersection… not realizing that Erica had been the one mapping, and that the map had disappeared with her armor, until they hit a fork in the path. Yumi looked between the two paths… “I… think we came from this way.” she said, although she was far from confident. 

    The group proceeded, and found themselves… at another dead end room. But this one had a chest in it. Looking between each other, the adventurers approached carefully, opening it… and finding a flower in a bottle. “Is this…?” Yumi started, picking up the bottle and comparing it to the picture of the target. A match. 

    “Hey, I found a shortcut over here!” Diane called, from her spot on the other end of the room. A patch of shockingly pink flowers marked a place where the hedge thinned enough that an opening could be hacked into it. “Looks like it comes out near where we left Aava!”  

    Suddenly things were looking up. It seemed like they might reach their goal after all, even if with some casualties. But that was to be expected for adventurers, right? As long as they managed to drag their transformed party members back, all was well. And, Agathe noted, they’d even found another treasure in the box - to her magic sense, it was very clearly an item of some strength. “Wow, such a cute collar~ And powerful too, I bet it’ll give someone a boost… don’t mind if I do…” 

    She’d already picked it up when the warning bells sounded in her mind - something was off with the magic, this thing was cursed! But it was too late, she couldn’t stop herself from putting it on. It might be cursed, but it would look perfect on her! She happily put it around her neck and closed it. The moment it clicked, the changes started. 

    “Mmhmn~” Agathe moaned, stretching out as the feeling of intense warmth pervaded her body. She felt stronger, like she’d expected the item to do. A shiver went up her back. She was warm. So warm. She had to get out of her clothes. They were suffocating her. The others looked over in time to see Agathe desperately tearing her clothes off, her dress and cloak, very quickly. She left her undergarments on as she fell to her knees. “Guys, it’s- c-cursed- hnnn~” she managed to say. Her mind was still her own for the moment but the magic coursing through her felt so good…

    She couldn’t see it, when a tail pushed it’s way out of her butt and panties, a fluffy blue one the same color as her hair. She also couldn’t see it when her ears started to travel up her head, and becoming covered in fur of a similar shade to her hair as well. Her hair went from carefully groomed and straight to completely wild, as her undergarments shifted and changed to become a part of her, patches of blue fur covering the naughty bits. Suddenly her sense of sight wasn’t as good, but her sense of smell exploded into new intensity, stronger than ever. She had finished the physical part, it seemed… but that wasn’t the end of the change. 

    With her body reshaped and remolded, her mind was soon to follow. She had been a Celestrian, now she was a dog girl, after she put on the collar. Wait, she was still a Celestrian right? But… they didn’t have fur, and the ears were wrong… the change pressed on, using her confusion as a foothold into her mind. Her knowledge of magic drained from her mind rapidly, leaving her without the ability to articulate what had happened to her. It was replaced with more proper knowledge for her species, how to obey orders and how much pleasure she would get from that. It felt more right. Agathe was a good dog. She was a guard dog, too. Her job was to sniff out intruders and alert… who, to them? Her masters and mistresses obviously. Doing that would give her so much pleasure, which was good since she was in heat so much... First and foremost for the Queen, but pretty much any of the ladies and squires and knights were her masters and mistresses. She was on the lowest rung for monsters. She was a monster? Right. As she came to the proper conclusion, her eyes shifted, the pupils vanishing as she became a real monster. 

    Agathe snapped back to her senses - had she been napping? Well, Mistress would punish her for that, because while she’d been sleeping, a pair of intruders had appeared! She leaped to her feet, growling low in her throat, stalking towards them. If she could take them herself…

    “Agathe? What happened…” Diane started, but she couldn’t finish as the new monster lunged, bowling her over. 

    Before Agathe could do anything more, she was shoved off of Diane with a golf-swing of the flat of Yumi’s sword. She recovered quickly, glaring at them, before throwing her head back and howling. It was like the dog-statues they’d run into earlier, but even louder, more clear. “We can’t help her if she won’t sit still… let’s head through and try and take her down on the other side!” Yumi shouted, pulling Diane through the hedges. 

    They popped out near the gate and the statue that used to be Aava, breathing heavily. They heard howling on the other end of the hedge, and scratching - it seemed like the more simple canine mind that had taken over Agathe’s was having some trouble getting through the hedge.

    5 had entered, and only two kept their original forms now. Diane and Yumi took a moment to rest, breathing heavily. Erica the dress was easy enough to carry. But how were they going to get both a statue that weighed who knew how much and an uncooperative dog girl back to town? Before they could open their mouths to talk about it, Agathe burst through the hedge - and right past them. To the foot of a new arrival. 

    “Ohohoho~ What a good girl, yes, telling your mistress where the bad guys were~” Said a voice not unlike the earlier lady. The woman was taller than most of the monsters they’d seen, and had an even more excessive dress than the last one, a full on ball gown, although this one was less pink and more a light blue and purple, and instead of a parasol she had an elegant fan. She was stunningly pretty, with a fair amount of makeup (albeit more tasteful than Lady Vivienne’s). She was giving Agathe some affectionate headpats, and the dog-girl’s tongue lolled out of her mouth with pleasure from it. She was also alone.

    That was never a good sign. Yumi drew her sword, while Diane got into a fighting position. The woman looked at them. “Hmph. Commoners, you dare draw steel on a woman of my standing? I see I’ll need to put you in your place quickly, then. Dog, you may watch as I deal with them. I wouldn’t want such a cute doggy to get hurt~!”

    Agathe, or rather Dog, sat down quickly and barked happily. “Yes mistress! I’m a good dog!” 

    Then she turned back to the two remaining adventurers. They could feel the power radiating off of her… this wasn’t like the others. “Commoners. Submit yourselves to I, Princess Yilda, and I shall allow you to retain your minds while in the Queen’s ranks. Resist and I shall have to remold them as well as your bodies.” 

    The girls looked at each other, then dashed towards the Palace Princess, mostly in synch. They tried to split her attention, but she gazed passively between them. She didn’t seem worried. More, she pondered what she’d do to them both. She seemed to come to a decision shortly before they reached her. She said one word, one command. “Kneel.” 

    Both girls stopped in their tracks. They both seemed to have enough willpower to not kneel immediately, but they couldn’t move much further. “Hm, that was supposed to be the deciding factor… but you both decided to stay up. Which one to change, which one~” she sung to herself cheerfully, while Dog cheered for her Mistress’ easy victory. Eventually, she pointed, and finger landed on Diane. “It’s your lucky day, you brutish peasant. You’re going to be my protege. I like this best, you look far too boyish, and I do so love to correct tomboys.”

    Dog quietly pulled the still-immobile Yumi off to the side, to give Mistress more space to work. The elegant lady hmm’d and haw’d to herself as she looked Diane over in full, inspecting her closely. Diane tried to struggle - “What are you talking about, I’m fine the way I am!” she said, but the sheer presence of the princess made it hard to argue.

    “Hmph! I wouldn’t even say you are adequate, let alone fine. But don’t worry, we shall correct that.” she nodded, fixing her mental image into her head of the noble lady she wanted to turn this disrespectful pugilist into. She snapped her fan closed before thwacking it at Diane’s spine. “Stand up straight! No matter the situation, a lady must retain proper posture!” she snapped, and Diane straightened from her fighting stance.

    “Hey, what gives?” she grunted, trying to go back into the proper stance, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do so. “Whatever you do to me, I’ll get you!” 

    “Diction, grammar, tone.” the princess commanded, thumping the fan on top of Diane’s head. “And you need to grow out your hair to proper length.” Hmph, had she been raised in a barn? Of course, she likely was, or worse. 

    “Stop this at once!” Diane said, her voice going from defiant shout to demure speaking, with a hint of a foreign accent. Her pink hair grew rapidly, falling down in a curtain from not even shoulder length down to brush the top of her bottom. “What have you done to me?” She tried to speak harshly, or even to curse, but the words morphed as they passed her lips. 

    “Corrections. Do keep up dear.” the Princess said. “Dog, come. Make use of your opposable thumbs and style her hair properly, or else I shall need to make some corrections to you as well. My dear debutante, get rid of those rags. They don’t suit you.” Another command-infused thwack on the shoulders, and Diane found herself shrugging off her admittedly slightly shabby attire, down to her undies. Dog, meanwhile, showed surprising dexterity as she styled the girl’s hair into elegant ringlets. 

    Princess Yilda frowned. “By the Queen, it’s worse than I thought. You have far too many muscles. Allow me to fix that - a lady of pedigree should have a body as soft and delicate as her personality.” She waved the fan over her, and Diane could feel her muscles draining, smoothing out and disappearing. She felt so weak. But at the same time, she felt… good? 

    Yilda grinned, seeing the conflict on her face. “Ah, I knew you’d come to like it.” Gently, she fanned some magic her way, taking the seed and forcing it to grow. 

    Diane frowned as new thoughts and knowledge warred with the old. Courtly manners took the place of her fighting skills. Etiquette and learning forced it’s way into her mind and shoved aside things a noble lady didn’t need to know, like managing a tight budget or the street smarts she had gained. And it also warped her nature. It couldn’t quite turn her into the haughty bitch that was appropriate for her station, not so quickly. That would come. But it did manage to turn her pride in her skills into pride in her station, and give her a pitiful outlook on the peasantry. She didn’t disdain them like the others. They were not worth that. They were worth pity, and it was the duty of a lady to give them the honor of working for the Queen because of it. Diane hardly noticed the makeup applying itself to her face, the new jewelry that had appeared, or how her eyes shifted and lost their pupils as she became a monster, a Debutante. 

    And Lady Diane was next to naked in the gardens. “Oh, heavens, this is quite embarrassing,” she said, her tomboyishness gone and replaced with feminine modesty. It wasn’t so bad - the only ones here were servants, soon to be servants, and her benefactor. But she was a lady, and must be dressed appropriately. “I do appear to be improperly dressed.”

    “Indeed, Lady Diane,” Princess Yilda said with a sly grin. She knew the girl’s name even though she hadn’t been told - it was easy enough to root through her mind for it. “I may provide you an appropriate gown, if you wish.”

    “Oh, don’t trouble yourself my lady,” Diane said. “I do believe I have something. Dog… actually, Dog isn’t a good name, you will be Diamond. In any case, will you fetch my dress?” Dog, now Diamond, snapped to it - after all, a debutante was of much higher station than a mere pet. She rummaged through Diane’s discarded bag, and withdrew the pink dress that had been stashed within. Magically, it was unwrinkled, pristine. “If I may, my lady, I shall wear this one. It used to be a lowborn adventurer, you see, and I think it will be a sublime reminder of the origins I’ve risen above.” Diane, of course, no longer remembered the name of the adventurer-turned-clothing, and she didn’t wish to. She wasn’t a person, she was a dress, like the statue on the pedestal was just a statue, and like Diamond was simply a pet. Such things didn’t need names or pasts. 

    “Oh, but of course dear. And it’s such a pretty dress besides, it would be a shame for nobody to wear it.” Yilda said, quite happy to see her utter disregard for a former friend as anything but clothing.

    Diane, with approval given, slipped the dress on with practiced ease. She shuddered with pleasure at the silk touching her body, hugging her curves and enhancing their appeal. The peasant had been a useless warrior, but was a delightful dress. She could almost hear the dress sigh as it finally fulfilled its purpose, but that would be silly - it was merely a dress, without a mind to understand the concept. The pretty pink piece made her look quite ravishing if she did say so herself, complimenting her pink ringlets and her makeup very well indeed. 

    Yumi, during all this, had been unable to move, and barely able to speak, as Princess Yilda’s magical command locked her in place. She struggled, but she was powerless to stop Diane’s conversion from cheerful adventurer to elegant noblewoman. The pair turned to her, grinning their too-perfect smiles dripping with contempt. “Now for the other one. I see one of my subordinates already took a swipe at you,” she said as she approached and took a lock of white hair into her hand, “So I already well know what you should become.”

    Yumi found her ability to speak, at this point. “Go to hell…” she grunted.

    “Hmph! How rude.” Diane said as she approached as well, “No matter. You shall have the honor of serving the princess, and through her the queen, whether you understand what is good for you or not.” It was oh so frustrating, that this peasant didn’t understand how magnanimous the people of the Palace were. Anywhere else, and such  intrusions and assaults were met with execution! Here, they gave the intruders opportunity to serve and raise their station.

    Princess Yilda’s voice took a venomous tone, as she started to verbally dress Yumi down. “You are a lowborn peasant, a brute! You don’t want to accept that anyone’s worth more than you, so you lash out!” she said. While she didn’t accompany it with her fan this time, the words had so much power to them that she didn’t need them. 

    Yumi felt the words shove their way into her mind. They bounced around in there, and despite how they clashed with her beliefs they wouldn’t leave. She was a brute who fought to make herself feel better about her low station. She didn’t notice as the rest of her green hair bleached to white as the words hit her. 

    “But then, you aren’t even any good at adventuring! You wouldn’t have lost if you were.” she said, and Yumi couldn’t help but agree as her adventurous nature changed, as her skills with the sword deteriorated to make room for service skills - cleaning, assisting her mistresses in maintaining appearances, serving however they requested. Her armor seemed to start to shift, changing just as fast as Yumi herself. 

    “You are brutish, rude, aggressive. You are an awful person, and you need to change.” the Princess said. And she was right. Yumi had to change, to become demure and respectful to her betters. Her now-white hair started to arrange itself into a work-appropriate ponytail, and her ears shrunk a little to become less obtrusive. “You don’t have opinions. Commoners don’t know enough to have beliefs, they’re too uneducated and stupid. Your mistresses have beliefs, and your mistress’ beliefs are your beliefs.” Yumi nodded along, becoming more meek and unable to disagree as her armor started to resemble the maid outfits she’d seen elsewhere, albeit covering significantly less. “Lady Diane, would you do the honors?” 

    “Yes, my princess~!” Diane said cheerfully. Bolstered by her benefactor’s magic, her own words had a similar effect. “You are not fit to adventure. You are fit only to serve me, as my personal maid, and through me my benefactor and our queen.”

    Yumi nodded, as a maid headdress appeared on her head (neatly tucked between her ears) and her eyes shifted from green to silver and lost their pupils. She was a maid. Specifically, she was a Handmaiden of a Princess, and thus of a bit higher class than the generic servants. But her personality was the same as them: her overriding priority was servitude, and all else was secondary. With that, the party of adventurers that had entered the labyrinth was gone, turned into monsters and their possessions. 

    “Ohohoho, a delightful finish my dear.” Yilda laughed, “Come, we shall have to set up a room for you. I believe we can bring the new statue, too, no?” 

    “That would be kind of you, my princess~” Diane said. 

    Before they could leave, though, Diamond started barking again, loudly. “Intruder! Intruder!” she growled, before continuing to bark. 

    The noblewomen and the new maid turned to the intruder. It was only one, although he seemed significantly better equipped than the others. But that wouldn’t help. Diane glared at them. “Maid, bring them here, would you? It seems I have room for a butler as well.” 

    “Yes, mistress.” The maid said. Her katana had changed to a more appropriate weapon, a kitchen knife, but she was quite certain it would suffice. She started rushing forward.

    The adventurer seemed unconcerned. “...Man, did they even manage to finish before they were taken?” he asked nobody in particular, “Well, this is what happens when you get cocky isn’t it. Oi, rabbit ears, good thing your momma sent us to follow you guys.” 

    The maid didn’t acknowledge him as she leapt forward, intending to try to disarm him. She was merely a maid, and the only family she cared for was her mistress’. The knife came down- and then the maid was on the ground, stunned from the force. 

    “Indeed. They should make the tests harder, you know.” said another, female voice. Princess Yilda turned around just in time to see a fireball coming for her, which she batted away with her fan. “Diane, buddy, this is real early to need a rescue.”

    “Arrogant fools!” Yilda shouted, “You may be a better class of adventurer, but all that means is you’ll make for better servants! Maid, on your feet. Diamond, Diane, prepare yourselves.”

    The assorted monsters prepared for a fight - it would be easy enough. And there would be two new servants in the Palace. 

    Yumi was the last to be fixed, since she’d been hit with the most converting magic of all of them - the combined efforts of a princess and a lesser lady. Although Erica was also hard to return to normal, as while the converting magic of the Lady in Waiting hadn’t been strong compared to some other effects, the experience of being worn by Diane had pushed her even more firmly into the mindset of clothing, insofar as she’d had a mind at all. The rest were easy enough - taking off the collar had returned Agathe’s mind, if not her body. Diane’s was mostly a mental change, and the magical solvents to fix Aava’s petrification were easily produced. 

    The infirmary was filled up with her and the rest of the party, back to their normal forms (with some silk that Erica had coughed up surrounding her bed and Aava taking bits of stone out of her hair, though). Before Yumi could say anything, the nurse who had finished reverting her from her maid form to normal hurried out of the room, leaving her to sort through what had happened to her. People often kept the memories of their transformed states, and remembered exactly how they felt during that time - it was often jarring for those who were transformed for long periods, and for inanimate transformations it’s like taking a nap. Luckily, the party had only been transformed for a relatively short time - mental recovery wouldn’t take long.

    Yumi heard the steps coming towards the door first. Three people, two of them armored, all of them talking. And she recognized one of their voices. “Thank you so much for your help… I knew it was a good idea to hire someone. I’d have gone myself, but I have a town to run…” Hearing Aki’s voice made her want to hide under the covers. But that would be pointless. 

    The trio entered the room. Yumi recognized two of them as the intru- adventurers who had saved her and her party. And she recognized the third but refused to acknowledge her presence. “You all up?” the female one asked. 

    “Yes-” Erica said, interrupted by another cough. The others all reported the same.

    “Well, I’m Sarah - and Orion and I saved your asses from your fates as in order, respectively, a statue, a dress, a dog, a spoiled brat, and a maid.” The woman said, indicating herself and her Celestrian companion. The man didn’t say anything, just grunting in affirmation. “You, my friends, are very lucky that Mayor Aki Stanton here hired us to keep an eye on you.”

    The Therian woman with them nodded, looking at Yumi in particular. Yumi did not look back.

    “So, categorizing mistakes - underestimating the enemy, grabbing random things, not bringing any healing items… and most of all, not retreating once you realized you were in over your head. You’re not going to blast through the Tower in one day. You’re not going to get through a floor in one day. I could go on, but those are the big ones.”

    Mayor Stanton had drifted over to Yumi’s bed and was gently stroking her ears. “You have to be far, far more careful, baby…” she said in what she probably hoped was a quiet voice but was more of a stage-whisper. Aki was a very… loud, person. 

    “I know, Mom…” Yumi mumbled. 

    “Now, I have to ask you something.” Sarah continued, “After all this, are you guys ever going back in there?” 

    There was a moment as the party looked at each other. “Yes.” They all said at the same time.

    “...Well, fine then. I like determination like that. But not for a while yet - you need to recover, and then you guys will be training. You should be happy we’re doing this - not everyone gets to train with the top adventurers of the town.”