Anon had been staring into space for the past few hours, he found himself doing that a lot recently due to the fact that being locked in a small white room doesn't exactly have many entertaining features to it, or maybe he was just losing his mind. Anon couldn't exactly figure out why he was in there to begin with, he'd heard a few mutterings about "security reasons" on the way in but that's the only time he'd heard anything about it so he just presumed everything was fine now.
Occasionally he'd end up in a slightly larger white room room ( with striking similarities to his small room except with the addition of a table and chair) and would be asked questions, the monotony of this rinse and repeat with Anon providing no answers would grow till the point his questioner gave up asking him anything all together and would leave him to be alone in the room that he had become occustomed to calling his own.
Things were virtually the same day in day out, for a while at least, things began to change roughly after his 63rd round of questioning which once again heeded no answers from him. The times between questioning would be longer than before like his captors were losing interest in him like a discarded toy, left broken and forgotten to gather dust in solitude. He'd also noticed that his questioner had changed his attitude during their time together, going from calm and collected to uneasy and irritable.
Suddenly he was roused from his thoughts by the unlatching of a door, "Is there even a point to this anymore?" he thought to himself. He was led along the narrow corridor by two stone-faced guards to the slightly larger room just like the previous 134 times. He gently plopped himself down on the chair in the centre of the room and awaited his usual companion.
"Good morning Anon, how are you today?" Captain Shining Armor said with an upbeat tone as he entered the room.
Anon remained silent.
"Same as last time then, and the 20 other times before that." Shining said with a tinge of anger now replacing his earlier cheery tone.
"Please Anon I'm not asking this as your superior, I'm asking this as a friend, what happened before you were brought back to us?"
Anons' mind began to wander back to old memories, his employment as nothing but a lowly cleaner of Canterlot Castle came to mind first. He rembered the days he'd spent wandering the vast halls, his cleaning duties forgotten as he stared at the magnificent works of art hanging from the ancient walls. He rembered spending countless nights staring up at the sky watching the stars without a care in the world till dawn broke once again. He remembered becoming good friends with that blue-maned guard that would stand watch during day court. He remembered the eyes watching him from afar during his stargazing session, but he put it down to his mind playing tricks on him. It was foolish to assume that.
He remembered the sudden fear and panic as the eyes moved closer. He remembered that there were in fact four pairs of eyes slowly moving closer, running his chances of a possible escape into the dirt. He rembered his muffled screams for help as the eyes revealed their odd hole filled grotesque bodies to him as they drew ever closer. Things became quite hazy after that. Next thing he knew he was in the middle of of what looked like a throne room. Seated in the large throne at the end of the room was their queen.
"Well look who's finally decided to join us in the land of the living, how was your journey? I hope my subjects didn't treat you too roughly."
Queen Chrysalis stated.
He remembered standing in a state of pure terror, still and silent.
"Oh don't worry no need to introduce yourself, I already know lots about you Anon so try not be too afraid to answer, I don't bite." She says punctuating the end of the sentence by revealing sharp fangs.
"Not yet that is." The Queen adds.
"Now you may be wondering why you're here aren't you?" She asks, Anon nods a silent yes.
"It's quite simple to explain really, my failed invasion of Canterlot left me and my Changelings back at square one after the elements came along and saved the day but there proved to be one thing I hadn't forgotten about that could just help out. That thing you may ask? Why, Shining Armors soft spot for his friends and family of course! And since there isn't a chance in Tartarus I'll be able to kidnap his wife again I found the next best thing, his best friend!" she said with great excitement at telling you her master plan.
"But alas, there's one slight problem, my subjects can't shift into what ever species you call yourself so that leads us to where we are now." The Queen then looks directly into Anons eyes. "You've got two options here, you tell me everything you know or you can refuse and then I'll make you tell me everything you know."
The last sentence made his heart drop, "Tell me this is some type of fucked up nightmare, where the hell is Princess Luna when I need her for once." Anon thinks to himself.
Anon finally gathers his remaining courage and shouts " You can't scare me into giving up secrets that could lead you and your band of psychos into taking over a nation!"
That statement definitely struck a nerve with her as Anon remembered being tackled to the floor and ending up with The Queens anger twisted face mere centimetres from his own. "LISTEN TO ME YOU LITTLE FUCK, IF YOU DON'T TELL ME THEN I'LL DO MY DAMNDEST TO MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING NIGHTMARE!" She screamed with a look of pure hatred in her eyes.
Anon remembered pausing for a slight moment before muttering the words that would seal his fate. "Well then that's just what you'll have to do, because there's still no way I'm going to just come out and tell you."
Sometimes Anon thought he'd made the wrong choice during the never-ending hell that became his life for the many months after that meeting with Queen Chrysalis. Anon would wonder if it was worth it to keep some insignificant secrets from the tyrannical queen so that Shining could live his life without fear of seeing the things he loved crumble around him. Anon would wonder if Shining had even noticed he was gone, surely that promotion to Captain would gift him the ability to free his captured friend, and if he had noticed Anon was gone he must've sent some sort of team to look into it, right?
Momentarily he broke out of his memories to look at the weary captain, the captain who had probably risked his life to save him, who'd probably spent many sleepless nights wondering what had become of his dear friend, but there was always a slight chance he hadn't cared about the wellbeing of Anon but only the integrity of the secrets Anon had tried ever so hard to keep.
"That's all you want isn't it, to know if your damn secrets are still safe." Anon mumbles in a flat tone.
Shining looks shocked by the fact Anon had actually responded for once.
"The answer is yes by the way, so can we just be done with this already and let me leave."
Shining stays silent for a moment before questioning him "Why didn't you just tell us that earlier? You could've gone home two months ago!"
"I didn't trust you, I didn't trust anyone, hell for all I knew I could've still been in that hell-hole and you were just another attempt at trying to trick me for information." Anon says in the same near inaudible mumble as before "Guess I was just a little scared to be honest."
"Anon we've been friends for years and you still thought that I could've been an imposter, that's practically impossible with our level of security!" states Shining back in his once again cheery demeanour. "Now c'mon, Princess Celestia wants to talk to you."
They exit the room side by side like old friends and slowly make their way along the corridor to the throne room.
"I guess things are finally looking up for me Shining." Anon says
"They sure are buddy." Shining answers
And from behind her mask, Queen Chrysalis grinned.
Author's Note
I hope you have enjoyed my first story, feel free to leave comments and criticisms below as well as any errors, it'd be greatly appreciated.