Slave Starlight

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Prologue
Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Sometime after the party started (which Pinkie was absolutely devastated she couldn’t stay till the end of and started crying), the mane six and a now bound Starlight Glimmer (who still had the magic dampening ring on her horn, the gag and now a spell covering her ears to prevent her from hearing) sat on the train which was chugging along back to Ponyville. It was fairly awkward for everyone, with quite a few of the ponies shooting Starlight constant glares. Namely Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was just sitting there with her head down and hair covering most of her face, Pinkie was bouncing around like her usual self and shouting random shit about how Starlight was going to have so much fun and how she will get to experience ‘the true magic of friendship’. Twilight was staring out the window watching the scenery go past with a worried look on her face.

“What’s troubling you darling?” Rarity says to Twilight from just across from her while leaning forward, giving her a concerned look.

Twilight doesn’t answer immediately, and just continues to stare at the surroundings as they fly by. “I’m just worried about what’s going to happen about Starlight. I don’t want to just hoof her over to Princess Celestia so she can throw her in a dungeon, but she’s too dangerous to just let her roam free, especially with her very high-level magic. Even with that magic suppression ring.” She nodded over to Starlight, who was currently sitting on the opposite side of the train car and was bound by rope with said ring on her horn, just looking out at the passing scenery. “I can’t allow her to stay around anypony, for risk of her managing to get it off. And she can’t stay in the castle because I am exceptionally busy now that I’m a princess. I would also like to try teaching her about friendship, maybe convince her to try and make an effort to improve herself.”

Rarity gave her an understanding look, before moving to sit next to her and putting her hoof around Twilight’s shoulders. “I’m sure we can figure something out. There are plenty of options available.”

It was at that moment that Pinkie bounced over with her usual face-splitting grin and perched herself in front of Twilight. “OH, OH, I HAVE AN IDEA!” She practically shouted, making Fluttershy jump. “Why don’t we ask Nonny if he can take her and look after her and teach her about friendship! They can become the bestest of friends, and you don’t need to worry about her causing trouble with her magic if she gets the ring off because Nonny’s magic resistant!”

Twilight gave Pinkie a startled expression at first, which turned into one of contemplation, then realisation as Pinkie spoke. When the mare was finished, she was silent for a few seconds before reaching forward and hugging Pinkie. “Pinkie, you’re a genius! That’s actually a really good idea, and it can kill two birds with one stone, as it will allow Anon to socialise more and make another friend, and he can help Starlight learn the value of friendship! It’s fool-proof!” Upon saying ‘kill two birds with one stone’, Fluttershy flinched, and by the end of her little outburst, everyone, including Starlight was looking at her with varying expressions, although Starlight probably just noticed the commotion out of the corner of her eye.

As soon as she looked around her cheeks went red and she laughed nervously. “Heh, sorry. I just thought it was a really good idea.”

Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the one to speak up. “A-are you sure? I mean, Anon is kind of… different himself. N-not that that’s a bad thing of course…” She trailed off and hid behind her mane again, looking down.

Rainbow Dash then decided to speak up, trying to clarify what her Pegasus friend was saying. “I think what she means is are you sure it’s a good idea to put Starlight under Anon’s supervision. I mean, I like Anon as much as the next pony, but they might not be the best influences on each-other. Not only that, but how is her staying with him going to prevent her from using magic if she gets the ring off?”

“Y-yes, that’s what I meant” Fluttershy stammered out, confirming Rainbow’s explanation.

“Nonsense, Darlings, I think it’s an absolutely marvellous idea as well. I’m almost certain that Anon will be able to knock some sense into that mare. He won’t do anything too rash I’m sure.” Rarity replied for Twilight, also voicing her own opinion on the matter.

“And as for her not being able to cast magic, its due to the nature of Anon’s magic resistance: I haven’t been able to tell why it happens, but I’ve determined through vigorous testing that Anon has some kind of field that surrounds him that negates any unicorn operated magic within. It’s only about 20 feet or so wide, so it’ll probably only be effective when he’s in his house.” Twilight explained in her usual scientific tone that she uses when explaining anything. “So I guess it might work. I trust Anon to keep her in check. I just hope she doesn’t get too out of hoof for him.”

All the ponies were now staring at her with looks of contemplation. Finally Applejack spoke up: “Well, it sounds like it might work. But she would almost always have to be around Anon. What about Anon himself? How will you convince him? He has his own life as well, albeit a strange one.” She asked in her usual southern drawl. All the others nodded in agreement.

“I’ll tell him the seriousness of the matter, and hopefully he will accept. I’ll probably need to give him some money to make up for asking him to quit his job, which I’ll also need to do, and for him to pay for the extra stuff he’s going to need to look after her, because this will be just like a full time job as it is. Do you girls think one thousand bits a week will be enough?” Twilight directed at all of her friends. At that last point, all her friends started gaping at her. “What?” She innocently asked.

“One thousand bits?! A week?! That’s more than I get in two normal weeks without special customers like Sapphire Shores, and I own my own shop darling!” Rarity exclaimed, looking as though she might faint. The others weren’t in much of a better state.

“That would be more than enough to pay for everything. In fact, fifty bits would probably cover it. Why are you giving him so much Sugarcube?” Applejack pipes in.

“I’ve got to give him some extra money to do this, and I will be asking him to quit, or at least ask if he can postpone his job for this, because as you said he’ll need to always be there with Starlight to make sure she doesn’t do anything out of Anon’s control while he’s at work. Plus, now that I’m a princess I don’t need to worry about money because I have access to the royal treasury.” Twilight said while trying to keep her voice even to make it look like she wasn’t bragging. “If this doesn’t persuade him to do it, I don’t know what will…” She said at the end.

The train was currently nearing Ponyville: you could tell by the majestic city of Canterlot that was coming into view in the distance on top of it’s mountain, with the moon above casting a magnificent glow on it. The ponies on the train had now fallen into an awkward silence, most opting to just look out the window and think. Starlight was looking at the great city with a look of boredom and slight awe. She couldn’t help but think internally about how majestic the city looked: it had been years since she had laid eyes upon it. So many things were currently going through Starlight’s head.

How could I have let myself get captured! This was the most prominent of those thoughts. She kept replaying the events of her capture over and over again in her mind. She also couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen to her now. I’m probably gonna get thrown into Canterlot’s dungeon, where I’ll end up spending the rest of my life. She dismally thought. She wished she could hear what the others were saying about her. Well, she assumed it was about her anyway. She decided not to think about what she couldn’t hear, because it wasn’t helping her either way. Instead she tried to focus on other, more pleasant things. Like her childhood before Sunburst got his cutie mark. Ok no, that’s just gonna make things worse.

Just as she was contemplating the next thing to try and think about, she felt the train shudder, then begin to slow down. She looked away from Canterlot, which was now nearly directly above them, and through the window on the opposite side of the train, to what she assumed was Ponyville. It was a quaint little town, she thought. Though not as quaint as mine was. Ugh, stop thinking about that.

As the train slowed to a stop, she did happen to notice something quite odd in the distance the other side of the town. Is that a crystal tree? And why does it look like it’s got some weird crystal tree-house in it? She was brought out of her musing though by someone tapping her on the shoulder. She turned around and looked at Twilight, who was giving her what seemed like a genuine smile. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of them. Well, one directed at me at least. She thought sarcastically.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Starlight.” Twilight said, completely forgetting the spell she cast over Starlight to prevent her from hearing. She realised her error at the confused look on Starlight’s face that she could see through the barely suppressed annoyance. She lifted the spell, finally allowing Starlight to hear again, to which her ears started wildly twitching, unaccustomed to the sounds of ponies piling off the train now assaulting her.

“Sorry, I forgot about that.” She said, then repeated he previous statement. By that point, the other ponies were leaving the carriage. “If you’re wondering, I’m going to be making some arrangements for where you’re going to be staying. I’m going to leave you with the girls for now while I go and sort this out. They’ll take you back to my castle, where you’ll stay until I come get you. I’m sorry it’s got to be this way, but you are too dangerous to allow to simply roam free and I don’t like putting ponies in prison unless they’ve done something as serious as murder.”

Starlight gave Twilight a bewildered look, half expecting her to say something like they were just dropping the others off before going to Canterlot where she would face a trial, then the dungeons. To say she was surprised when Twilight didn’t even mention a trial was an understatement.

“I try to treat everypony very fairly, despite what they might have done in the past. I believe everypony should have a second chance. This is your second chance. If you don’t want to take it, and understand why what you did was wrong on so many levels, then I may just take this up with Princess Celestia, and a trial can be arranged.” Twilight responded to Starlight’s bewildered expression. She couldn’t talk, as she still had the gag in her mouth. “I really hope it doesn’t come down to that though. If you manage to put your past experiences, whatever they were, behind you, I believe you could become a very nice pony.”

“I’m going to take your bindings off now, except for your magic inhibiting ring. And please don’t try to escape because it just makes things more awkward for both of us.” She started to remove the bindings that were covering her legs with magic, then proceeded to remove the gag. The bindings dropped to the ground with a thump as they were released from Twilight’s magic. Starlight just sat there, working her jaw to try and get feeling back into it. She still had a bit of a scowl on though.

“Alright, let’s go. Oh, and one last thing: I’ve cast a tracking spell on you that can tell me exactly where you are at any given time.” She decided to leave out that it had a limited range that would only cover an area about the size of Ponyville and that it would wear off after a few days. Either way, she turned around and started making her way out of the carriage through the doors, constantly checking behind her to see if Starlight was following. After a few seconds, she started following at a slower pace.

As they approached the other girls who were standing on the platform, Twilight started talking again. “Alight girls. I’m going to head on over to Anon’s right now to have what could be a very long talk. Could you all do me a favour and take Starlight back to the castle and wait there for me?” All the others said their affirmations and nodded, although only Pinkie had a smile on her face. Twilight smiled somewhat awkwardly back. “Thanks. I’ll try to be as fast as I can with this. I only hope that Anon is in a good mood today… Wish me luck.”

“Good luck Twi!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down like her usual self. The others just nodded as well.

I’m gonna need it, She thought.At that, she turned tail and made her way off the platform, heading for Anon’s house while the other’s headed towards the castle.

*Knock knock*

After about a minute, the door to Anon’s house slammed open, revealing Anon with a towel haphazardously slung around his waist and an annoyed look on his face. After seeing who was at the door, his look softened a bit.

“Oh, hey Twi.” He said in a neutral tone while adjusting the towel around his waist so it would hold, and to try and better protect his body from the cold night air that was currently assaulting him, making him shiver.

“Oh, uh, h-hey Anon. Sorry, was I interrupting something?” She innocently asked, gesturing towards the towel and blushing at getting a direct look at Anon’s completely naked chest, at which she stared for a good few seconds before averting her gaze.

“Oh this? Nah, I always go around wearing a shitty towel around my waist while at home. I also go around sopping wet, making the whole house damp just so that I have to clean it up when I can be assed.” He replied with no small amount of sarcasm and an expression that just said ‘seriously’.

“W-well, um, sorry. I-I can always come back tomorrow-” She said and started to turn away.

He smiled at that. “I’m fucking with you Twiggles. I’m always happy to see you, although it was a bit of an awkward time.” He said, reaching an arm forward, booping her on the nose, making it scrunch up in a cute manner. “Come in. I’ll just go shove something decent on.” He turned around and sprinted up the stairs, taking two at a time, and nearly bumping his head on the bit of ceiling which stuck out towards the stairs. “And shut the door! It’s freezing!” He shouted back down from presumably his room.

Twilight just stood there for a second, looking at where Anon was a couple of seconds ago. Well, I guess that was a good start. At least he’s in a good mood, despite me interrupting his shower or bath. Must’ve had a good day at work or something.

She made her way in, turning around and closing the front door with her hoof. It felt kinda odd, seeing as she was so used to using magic to shut doors. She then went into the living room to the left, and over to the couch, resolving to just collapse backwards onto it, letting her legs fly upwards, where she just waited for Anon to come back down.

It only took Anon a couple of minutes or so to get dried and dressed, noisily making his way back down the stairs. He wandered into the living room, and proceeded to collapse into his favourite armchair similarly to Twilight. Once settled, he reached over and flipped a switch on the lantern that was next to him, turning it on and illuminating the room.

“So Twiggles, what could possibly be bothering you that you come round at ten at night, disturbing my shower?” He started with a slight grin and taking a glance up at the clock, making Twilight blush and try to hide behind her mane a bit, somewhat like Fluttershy. He always liked to see Twilight flustered: it was incredibly cute.

“W-well, I’ve just got back from the place that the map sent us, as you might have guessed.”

“Oh I completely forgot about that thing. I mean I only heard about it briefly yesterday as you came rushing into my house yelling at me what had just happened, making me think that your new freaky castle had been destroyed with the level of excitement you had about going on some ‘adventure’, before rushing back out and towards the station.” Twilight blushed some more, trying to hide behind her mane a bit more and failing. “Yea how did that go?”

“It went reasonably well in the end. Well, it was quite weird at first: there was this town that had nothing but two rows of houses and one at the end that was populated by a bunch of ponies that had been brainwashed and had their cutie marks replaced with black equal signs, and went around with the biggest fake smile that even made Pinkie nervous.”

“Wow, that takes some doing to make that pony nervous.”

“Yeah I know right, well either way the whole town was run by a pony called Starlight Glimmer, a pink and purple unicorn who was using her magic to replace the ponies cutie marks and brainwash them. She even did so to us.”

“Sounds like you ran into Equestria’s version of Stalin. So go on, how did you kick her ass?” Anon asked with a bit of a laugh.

Twilight also smiled a bit. “Well, there happened to be a couple of ponies who were already looking for a way to escape the village. They managed to get us alone and asked us to help them, and explained that there was some weird ‘cutie mark vault’ up in a cave that had all their cutie marks in, which she took us to, and managed to take our cutie marks because we were oblivious to her intentions at that time.” Anon just snorted and rolled his eyes.

“After that, we managed to expose Starlight’s cutie mark, which she still had, but had the Equal cutie mark painted over it, and caused the town to turn on her. They all went up to the vault and got their cutie marks back, but at that time Starlight was in her house, and she had all our cutie marks in there with her. She escaped through some trap door in her house. We managed to chase her down with the help of the other townsponies, captured her in a cave in the mountains, then bought her back here.” Twilight finished her very abridged version of the story, just wanting to get onto asking Anon about taking Starlight.

After a few seconds, Anon spoke “Well, that’s quite some story, but that still doesn’t really explain why you came to me tonight instead of just going back to your castle to get some sleep and telling me tomorrow.”

“Yeah… About that…” Twilight started, “As it turns out, Starlight is a very powerful magic user, probably just as powerful as myself. As such, she is quite a danger to the population if not kept in check…”

“That’s what the dungeons in Canterlot are for.” Anon pointed out.

“Yeah you see, I don’t really want to throw her in a dungeon. I’ve never been a fan of doing that to anypony, I believe everypony deserves to have a second chance at least, unless they are truly irredeemable. I think Starlight is redeemable. I think she’s got some past experiences which are causing her behaviour.”

Anon raised an eyebrow at Twilight, unsure of where she was going with this. “As the Princess of Friendship I can tell these kinds of things. It’s just a feeling in my gut.”

Still unsatisfied, Anon just decided to ask. “Ok, so why are you telling me all this, surely this is your domain.”

“Well, what I’m asking is if you could possibly take and look after Starlight, and try to find out what’s wrong with her, and try to teach her the magic of friendship.”

Twilight sat there looking at Anon with a hopeful expression. Anon just sat there looking back at Twilight with a neutral expression. Slowly, the mask of neutrality slipped, and Anon just burst out laughing a few seconds later.

“HAHAHAAHAAA! M-ME?! LOOK AFTER THE PONY EQUIVALENT OF STALIN?! AND TEACH HER THE ‘MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP’?! FUCK ME THAT’S A GOOD ONE! HAHAHAHA! YOU REALLY GOT ME THERE!” Anon shouted out, actually falling forwards out of his chair in laughter. Twilight just looked on, her expression unchanged, waiting for Anon to finish his laughing fit. Yep. Expected that reaction. Now for the most difficult bit…

“Anon, I’m actually being serious.”

“Fuck me.” He said as he climbed back into his chair, tears still rolling down his face. “Wait, you’re being serious? Have you looked at who you’re talking to?” He gestured towards himself with his hands. “I’m not a pony. I don’t believe in all that shit. I mean sure, it works for you guys, and I respect that, but I can’t teach an evil pony dictator about the magic of friendship, especially seeing as I’m magic resistant myself.”

“That’s a big part of the reason I’m asking you to do this. You emit a magic resistant field that prevents unicorn magic from working. She won’t be able to do anything while she’s around you. It’s completely up to you how you look after her though. The main point in this is to reform her so she can live among us without the need to worry about her causing harm. You would need to keep her close to you at all times though, to prevent her from using magic.”

“Twilight, I have a job. I have other responsibilities, although fuck knows what they are. I gotta go shopping and shit. How am I supposed to do all those things if I have to stay at home and look after a pony?”

“Well, as for your job, I am willing to pay you for this, as well as for any kind of extra stuff you’d need for her. This would essentially become your new job. I’m not quite sure what you’re going to do about going out anywhere else, like shopping. I guess you’d just have to figure it out.”

Anon sat there for a minute contemplating it. Well, on one hand, I hate my job. Working at Sugarcube corner sucks, and I have to put up with those fucking babies whining in my ear half the time, and Pinkie yelling in my ear the other half. But looking after and trying to befriend another pony, especially an evil one is gonna be a job and a half…

“How much would you pay me for doing this?”

Twilight smiled at that, knowing that she had won already, especially with this offer. “One thousand bits a week.”

Anon’s jaw dropped, practically going through the floor. “ONE THOUSAND BITS! A WEEK! I barely get fifty a week, and that’s on a good week!”

“Yep, One thousand bits.” Twilight smiled, giggling a bit at Anon’s reaction.

“When do I start?!”

Twilight giggled even more. “You can start tonight. If you come back with me to the castle, she is currently there with the rest of the girls. I can also give you your first payment while there. I’m sure there’s a few thousand bits lying around somewhere…” She said, practically making Anon drool at the thought.

Anon shook his head, trying to snap himself out of his stupor. “Alright, in all seriousness, why, and how, are you willing to pay me so much money?”

“Well, as for the how, I’m now a princess, which means I get access to the royal treasury in Canterlot. As for the why, you’re my friend, and I want to pay you a substantial amount for this. I feel like I’m dumping one of my problems off on you, which is almost literally what I’m doing, and I feel really guilty for it. I know that money doesn’t really fix issues, but I don’t have another option unless I want to send her to Princess Celestia who would probably throw her in the dungeon.”

“Well, I must say I’m touched that you think that highly of me.” Anon said while pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. “But it’s fine. Money may not solve everything, but it certainly helps. I’ll at least give it a try, even if it ends up being too much for me. This also won’t be permanent I take it?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not unless you want it to be, and if she’s sufficiently reformed. And of course you can also ask me to find someone else or find another way to do this if you can’t handle it by yourself. Although, I’m not sure what I’d do if you do…”

“Well, I guess I’ll put my coat and shoes on and follow you. Am I gonna need anything?”

“I don’t think so. I take it you’ve got food in the house?” Anon nodded. “Then no. Well, at least not for tonight. You can always go and get some things tomorrow. Although, you’d need to take her with you…”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Alright then, let’s go.”

Anon went over to the door where his coats and shoes were, slapped on a pair of trainers and a trench coat, and opened the door.

“It’s a bit chilly out here. Fuck, why doesn’t Luna make the nights warmer.” Anon said as Twilight trotted up beside him, looking out over Ponyville.

“Princess Luna doesn’t control the temperature, silly. The pegasi do. And its nearing winter, so cold nights are to be expected.” She giggled at Anon’s mix-up.

“Man I don’t know how you ponies work this shit. It’s weird as fuck to me. Although, everything here is weird as fuck to me. Whatever. Let’s just go so I can get back into my warm house as fast as possible.”

And with that, the both of them set off towards Twilight’s castle.

Chapter 3

The following morning came the same as usual: Celestia’s sun shone brightly through Anon’s window, shined straight through the small gap between the curtains, and directly into Anon’s eyes. Anon stirred with a groan at the intense light upon his eyes, and tried to move away from it. He did manage to, but the damage was already done, and he was now beginning to awaken.

“Ugh… Fuck you sun.” He groaned, just lying there.

After a few minutes of trying to get enough energy to move, he finally found it, and opened his eyes as he began to sit up, taking a glance at the clock as he did, which showed 9:00. “I think I’m gonna head to Rarity’s at some point and ask her to make me some new wider and thicker curtains… I’ve had enough of this.”

Getting up and wandering like a zombie into the bathroom down the hall, he started his morning ritual: shit, shower and shave, if there’s enough hair to warrant a shave that is (although, he never shaves his moustache, only shapes it up a bit. He likes that too much to get rid of it).

Once out of the shower, he just heads back into his bedroom to get dressed. Once done, he glances back at the clock: 9:30. “Okay good, I got half hour to get to work. Although, I could have spent that asleep. At the very least, the sun makes a convenient alarm clock.”

It was at that minute that he heard his actual alarm clock go off, jumping around on the side of the bed. “Maybe I should put it forward some… Half hour to get ready and get there isn’t long…”

Putting the thought out of his mind, he turned around and began to make his way down the stairs.

However, as soon as he turned the corner into the living room, his mouth hit the floor, and nearly did he. The living room looked as if a stampede of buffalo had just stormed through. How he hadn’t heard this happen, he had no idea. He must’ve just been that tired that he slept through it all.

There were books strewn everywhere, the couch and armchairs were in the wrong places, somehow not upturned, although the bookshelf rested diagonally against the couch, which looked as if the back had broken and was now jutting inwards. The couple of light stands were knocked over, all the candles laying all over the place. The coffee table in the middle had been upturned, the glass in the middle laying across the floor, miraculously still in one piece, although it did have a few large cracks on. The grate in the fireplace was also out, laying on top of one of the armchairs, some remains of coal covering the chair. Lastly, Starlight lay asleep on the last armchair, which was the only item which didn’t look broken or out of place. It looked as if she had being crying, as there was a large damp spot under her head, and her eyes had bags under them. Also, the ring on her horn was gone.

Anon just stood there, taking it all in. Slowly, his face contorted into one of pure rage. After about a minute of just standing there he finally broke. “WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO MY HOUSE!” He bellowed, causing Starlight to jump awake, standing on her hooves with her back up, not unlike a cat would when startled.

She looked around for the source of the shout, and her eyes found Anon. Her eyes became pinpricks as she saw the look of fury upon his face. She didn’t move, though. Just stood there like a deer in headlights. Anon stalked over to her; reaching forward, he roughly grabbed her by the throat, and held her against the back of the chair. It wasn’t enough to strangle her, but it was enough to make her even more scared.

“WHAT. THE FUCK. DID. YOU. DO. TO. MY. HOUSE!” he shouted again, although it was quieter than last time.

“I-I w-was attempting t-to escape.” She stammered out, realising that talking was going to be her only way of ever possibly getting out of this.

“And how did trying to escape turn into you trashing my living room?!” He said again, just barely on the verge of shouting this time.

“I-I was scared. I’ve n-never been without my magic before. W-when I got the ring off, my magic didn’t return. I freaked out, and got quite angry…” It was the best she could do. She really just didn’t like Anon. There was just something about him that un-nerved her. It may have been because he was this weird bipedal creature she had never heard of, but she thought it was something else as well. Anon legitimately scared her, and there wasn’t much that could scare her.

Anon didn’t say anything for a few seconds, just looking at her still with that fury. “How did you even get your ring off? I thought you had to use magic for that.” He asked offhandedly, realising that she hadn’t said how, curiosity slightly overshadowing the anger.

She didn’t answer immediately, but after she saw Anon’s eyes narrow, she began. “I-If you apply a strong enough force to a magic inhibiting ring, it can cause it to shatter, essentially removing it. The only problem with that, is that it has a very high risk of breaking the horn it is attached to as well.”

“That doesn’t really answer my question. How did you do it, and how come your horn is still intact then.” He demanded more than questioned

“I looked around your house, trying to find something suitable. I eventually managed to find a very strangely designed hammer in one of your kitchen drawers. After a while of testing various methods with it, I managed to balance it on the bookshelf, and after quite a few attempts, with a cushion on my head, and knocking it off, I managed to get it to hit the ring squarely, shattering it. I guess I was just incredibly lucky I didn’t shatter my horn as well.”

Upon hearing that, Anon let go of Starlight, opting to walk over to the couch and knocked over bookcase. Taking a glance under the bookcase revealed a few shattered gold fragments, which looked like they could be the ring. There was also his hammer on the ground, which seemed undamaged thanks to the carpet.

He made his way back over to Starlight, who was curled up on the chair again, still looking up fearfully at him. “Well, it seems you’re telling the truth. Although I gotta say one thing: your magic will never work while around me. I don’t know exactly why, but my body emits some kind of magic dampening field, causing any unicorn magic used within range of me to be completely inert.” He tried to say in as calm a voice as possible, but the anger was still evident.

Her eyes widened at that. “S-so what you’re saying is that while I’m living with you, I can never again use magic?!” She half wailed, half exclaimed.

“Exactly. That is one of the main reasons Twilight asked me to take you. Although I’m beginning to regret agreeing, seeing as you evidently can’t control yourself.”

She started crying again, realising that she had now dug herself a pretty deep hole. She had no way out of this.

“I’m not sure what exactly I’m gonna do with you, but I tell you something: I’m gonna punish you for wrecking my living room. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll find a way.” He had managed to calm his anger enough to think a bit more rationally at this point.

“Right, I’m now gonna have to tidy all this shit up. And I’m gonna have to get a new coffee table.” He said more to himself than to Starlight. He then realised that he in fact didn’t have to go to work today. It improved his mood somewhat, the initial anger he felt dying down slowly. He had to think about this rationally.

“What am I gonna do with you, though. I can’t just leave you to run around the house anymore, not after this fiasco.” He waved his arms around the wrecked room for emphasis.

He didn’t get an answer, although it was a rhetorical question anyway. He stood there thinking for a while, thinking of any possible ideas. What I really need is a cage. It’s extreme, and she’s a fully sentient being, but if she was going to act like an animal like this, then what other choice do I have? He thought.

After a while longer, he just drew a blank. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on you for now, cos I ain’t got a fucking clue what I’m gonna do with you right now. Just… stay on the chair. Don’t do anything.” He said to her. She just remained still.

“I hope Twilight doesn’t come while I’m tidying up…” He couldn’t help but think

As luck would have it, Twilight did show up while Anon was tidying up. Starlight was still on the armchair, now half asleep. He had managed to put the bookshelf back up, moved the furniture back to the right place, and put the fire grate and light stands back up. The coffee table was now outside, him having resolved to get a new one. Just the candles and books remained.

As Twilight made her way up to the door, and gave the coffee table an odd look. She had a saddlebag on her back which had Anon’s first payment. She approached the door, and knocked three times with a hoof.

After a few seconds, the door opened, slowly this time. Anon wasn’t at the door. “Come in.” She heard Anon call from inside. She did so, slipping inside, and kicking the door closed behind her. When she wandered into the living room, her eyes went wide, scanning the floor which was still littered with candles and books.

“What happened in here?!” She asked, shock evident in her voice.

Anon simply pointed to Starlight, who was still half asleep on the chair.

“She did this?” She asked, her eyes going a bit wider. “Anon, I’m so sorry… I feel even worse for asking you to do this now.” She said, looking like she was actually going to start crying.

“Most of it’s superficial, thankfully. Although I’ll need to get a new coffee table. The couch is also broken, but still usable.” He said, bending over to pick up a few candles which were lying on the floor, somehow unbroken, and then going and putting them back where they belong.

“Here. At least let me help you with it.” Twilight said. She scrunched up her face, a look of concentration forming on it. After a couple of seconds, she stopped. “Oh, right. I keep forgetting about that.” She sheepishly said.

“It’s fine, I got it. I don’t have work today, or any day now, so it’s not like I’m late for anything besides breakfast. Speaking of which, do you want some?” He offered.

“No thanks, I ate before I came out. I also headed over to Sugarcube Corner and informed the cakes of the situation. Pinkie was also there, so I had to tell her as well. She was really sad about it, but the cakes understood and said that they’d be happy to let you work for them again in the future.”

“Awesome. That’s that sorted at least. I still gotta figure out some other things with this though.”

“Like what?” Twilight asked.

“Like how I’m gonna keep her in check while at home, how I’m gonna go out anywhere, like shopping, among other things.”

“That is quite a problem…” She said. They both stood there thinking for a while before Twilight spoke up again. “I have an idea. It’s not an amazing one, but it should work. I don’t know if you’re gonna like it though, and I know for a fact that she won’t. I’m not too happy about saying this but it looks like extreme measures are kinda necessary…”

“I don’t care really. If it works, then great.As long as it keeps her from doing anything like this again, I’ll do it.” Anon said with a determined tone.

“Well, alright then. You should get a collar and a leash to put on her for when you go out, and possibly get a fairly large cage for her to stay in at nights. At least until she starts showing she can behave that is.”

“…How is that much different from going to jail? I thought you asked me to take her to get her away from being behind bars, and now you’re suggesting it?” He asked, adopting a surprised look.

“As I said, it’s not an amazing idea, but it would work. And it wouldn’t be like going to jail, as she would still have some free reign while you’re around, and can still go outside, as long as it’s with you.”

“Also, I can’t go outside with a pony held on a leash! All the other ponies will think I’m some kind of sadist and/or rapist!” Anon exclaimed, waving his arms around for emphasis.

“It would look odd, yes, but it’s not illegal or anything like that, just frowned upon. Also most ponies don’t tend to think like that, they would just find it weird. I’ve known other ponies to do something similar, although it wasn’t exactly for the same reason.”

Anon sighed. “Well, what choice do I have, really. It’s either that or I literally carry her everywhere, which will kill my arms and will look equally as weird.” He said in defeat.

“And would look adorable.” Twilight added, sporting a bit of a blush.

“Right…” He trailed off. “Well, I guess I gotta head out to the pet store at some point then. Fuck knows how I’m gonna take her with me though.”

“Well, I guess I could stay here and watch her while you head out, as long as you don’t take too long. I gotta be back at the castle in an hour or so.” She glanced over at Starlight, who was still sleeping quietly on the chair. “She’s not exactly doing much at the minute, and I can easily stop her if necessary.”

“Alright, cool. I’ll be as quick as I can then. I can also grab some breakfast while I’m out.”

“By the way, what happened to the ring on Starlight’s horn?” Twilight asked as it registered in her that the ring was absent from her horn.

“Oh, she managed to get it off somehow. Broke it by causing a hammer to fall on it.” Anon said offhandedly as he was putting his coat and shoes on.

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. “She did what?!” She half exclaimed, half whispered.

“Yeah, she apparently really wanted that ring off. Then she realised that she still couldn’t do magic due to my inhibiting field thing, and she went crazy and destroyed my living room.”

“Anon, you do know that she could have completely destroyed her horn by doing that, right?!” She exclaimed again, though with a bit less force.

“Yeah she did mention that, though she didn’t seem to care. She just wanted her magic back.”

“Well, she’s gonna have to live without it for as long as she’s with you, so she’ll just have to learn.” Twilight said, still hoping that Starlight will learn her lesson someday.

“Yep. You’re free to help yourself to whatever you want while I’m gone by the way. I’ll try to be quick, I know you got stuff you need to do.” He said, even though a small part of him still said that Twilight was at least partially responsible for this and he should be a bit more annoyed at her. He quickly shoved that thought to the back of his mind, and opened the door. “I’ll see ya soon, Twiggles.”

“Yeah, see you soon Anon. Oh, and you should go to Lillie’s Pet Store, you’ll definitely get what you need there!” She said with a smile, shaking her head a bit at the stupid nickname he sometimes calls her.

With that Anon turns around, proceeding to walk out the door and shutting it behind him, and walks into town at his usual fast pace.

“This is so fucking weird…” Anon says to himself as he stands outside Ponyville’s local pet store, looking up at it. It looked innocent enough, but he could stop thinking about why he was here.

“Let’s just get this over with. How hard can it be to buy a pony-sized collar and leash?” He then walked forward, reaching up and pushing the door open with his hand, causing a little bell to jingle above it.

As the bell went off, the pony sat behind the counter; a pale yellow Pegasus mare with a light brown mane, glanced up and smiled widely as she saw Anon enter, glancing around at the assortment of pet toys, food and other supplies. “Welcome to Lillie’s Pet Store, how may I help you today, mister?!” She said in a very happy and excited tone, which was nothing like what Anon was expecting.

Anon just slowly walked up to the counter, looking staring a bit worriedly at the mare, who had a smile wide enough to rival Pinkies. “It’s, uh, just call me Anon. I-I was just wondering if you had any, uh, collars and leashes for sale?” He stuttered, trying to avoid eye contact with the mare, who he assumed to be Lillie.

“Of course we do, sugar. What kind of pet store doesn’t do collars and leashes!” She laughed, and her smile seemed to get a bit wider. “What lucky animal did you pick up that you want a collar for, and I’ll see if we got just the right one in stock. We can even engrave your pet’s name and your name on it for free if you want!” She exclaimed, seeming much too excited about the prospect of selling a collar.

“That won’t be necessary. Have you got one about the size of a, umm, pony?” He said, feeling extremely nervous around this mare. He obviously said something wrong, because all of a sudden the mare squeed much like Fluttershy and leaned over the counter with yet an even larger grin.

“Ohhhh, I see how it is! I’ve got the perfect thing for you! It’s not often we get customers come in for that! Especially such exotic customers!” She said, leaning forward even more, looking all over Anon’s body with exceptional interest, making Anon back up a bit, looking at her with a bit of fear.

Jesus, this mare is just as crazy as Pinkie. Note to self: never come in here again unless it’s a life or death situation. Anon thought, trying to look away from the creepy mare who was looking at him with what could only be lust.

After about half a minute, the mare finally leaned back behind the counter. “I’ll be back in just a minute, sugar. I got just the thing for you…” She said with a wink before heading through a door behind the counter to what Anon thought was probably the back storage.

“Fuck this day is turning out weird.” Anon said under his breath as soon as the mare vanished.

It only took the mare less than a minute to get what she went out back for, and emerged with a bright purple collar and equally purple leash held under one wing. That creepy smile was still present.

“Here you go, this is just the thing you need to spice up those special times!” She said with another wink, dumping the stuff on the counter. The collar itself was pretty plain, but it looked as though it was made from leather. The leash was pretty similar. What did catch Anon’s eye though was the tag on the collar: It was a relatively large gold oval with hearts engraved around the edge. If he didn’t already know what this collar and leash was meant for, he would have to be denser than lead.

“Uhh, don’t you have anything a little more, um plain? Please?” He said, fearing what was going to happen upon attempting to decline the suggestion.

“Oh, nonsense, sugar. This collar is perfection! It’s even made of genuine leather for strength, imported from Gryphus specially!” She seemed very insistent on selling Anon this collar.

“But aren’t cows sentient? How can you even stand to be around leather?” Anon couldn’t help but ask.

“It does bother most ponies, but we stock them for their superior quality over the other types and for these kind of situations! We also get other races coming here to buy various things as well, although they are rarer. We aim to please everyone!”

Huh. She said ‘everyone’ instead of ‘everypony’. And I guess that does make sense. Maybe there are those select few ponies out there that aren’t racist. Anon thought. “Well, I guess it gets the job done, although I’m not sure how well Starlight’s gonna take wearing leather from a cow…” He then wondered out loud, which he realised two seconds later was a huge mistake.

“Wonderful!” She exclaimed, obviously taking that as an assent that he was going to buy the collar. Just as Anon was going to open his mouth to say something else, she swept the collar up with a wing and started to turn around, saying “I’ll be back in a sec, then, I’ll just head into the back to engrave it for you Mister Anon!” She vanished a second later.

“…Shit.” Was all Anon could say as he stared at where the collar had been. “Why did I have to say Starlight’s name in front of her…” He then just leaned forward and banged his head on the counter.

It’s not like I can just not buy it now either, cos she’s engraving it. He thought dismally.

A couple of minutes later, Lillie came bounding back in with a brown paper bag with the collar in. She then proceeded to put the leash in the bag. Anon still had his head firmly planted on the counter, arms just dangling down with the bag of bits he decided to bring out for this grasped in one hand.

“Here you go Mister Anon! Don’t open it until you get home, otherwise you’ll ruin the surprise for your Starlight! Is there anything else you require today?” She sounded even more excited than she did before, if that’s even possible.

“No, that’s all I wanted. Actually I wanted less than that but I guess I’m stuck with it now.”

“I’m so glad you have such high views on my little shop, sugar! Thank you!” To Anon’s surprise and resentment she then hopped over the counter and pulled him off the counter, and wrapped her forehooves around his waist, hugging him very tightly.

Is this mare related to Pinkie or something?! I don’t think I’ve seen one of the ponies so clingy and happy aside from her. He though while his arms were raised in the air, and trying to wiggle out of the impromptu hug.

She let go after a few more seconds, then hopped back behind the counter. “That’s fifty bits, sugar!” She said, that smile omnipresent.

“Fifty bits! That’s more than I get paid a week!” He couldn’t help feeling like he’d said that before, kinda like déjà vu…

“Leather isn’t cheap, unfortunately. And neither is engraving. That is some top quality stuff you’ve got yourself there! In fact, because I like you so much, I’ll give it to you for forty. How does that sound sugar?”

Grumbling, Anon just opened up his pouch and counted out forty bits. “I guess so. Thanks…” He said, trying his best to sound grateful but he wasn’t sure if it came off as such. He guessed it did because Lillie’s smile grew a tiny bit, not that it made much of a difference.

“That’s lovely. Thanks for stopping by! Come back again soon!” She called as Anon just dumped the money on the counter, picked up the bag and turned to start walking out, simply raising one hand a bit to indicate a goodbye. At this point he just wanted to get away from that mare. She was driving him just as crazy as Pinkie normally does.

“Well, let’s hope Starlight likes her new collar. It fucking costed enough. At least twilight is paying me a lot for doing this.” He said as he walked out of the shop, glancing round to see if anyone was looking at him, and probably wondering why he was leaving a pet shop. “Man, stop being fucking paranoid, just go back home. Speaking of, I gotta give Twilight a bit of a talking to about this at some point…” He said to himself, starting the relatively short walk back to his house.

Chapter 4

“Welcome back, Anon. Did you manage to get what you needed?” Twilight eagerly asked as Anon opened his front door, immediately appearing right in front of him. This cause him to jump, nearly dropping the bag that was held loosely in one hand.

“Don’t… do that again.” Anon said, sounding somewhat out of breath.

“You seem really on edge all of a sudden. Are you okay?” Twilight asked, instantly going into caring mode.

“Yeah, that might have something to do with that creepy as fuck shop owner. I don’t want to have to go there again anytime soon.”

“Oh you mean Lillie?” Anon nodded. “Aw she’s a real nice mare once you get to know her, and even before you get to know her actually. She may be a little… excitable, but she’s harmless.”

“She’s too much like Pinkie for my liking. But yeah, I suppose I got what I needed, although it costed an arm and a leg.” Anon said, dumping the bag on the floor, kicking the door shut and taking his coat and shoes off.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side in that really cute manner ponies do when they get confused.

“Well, I got a collar and leash, but it costed forty bits. You know that’s a point, I don’t remember her charging me for the leash…” Anon trailed off, a contemplative look on his face.

“What kind of collar did you get then? I know that they do some really expensive stuff, but I didn’t think you’d want to spend a fortune on Starlight, at least not yet.”

“Fuck it, I’ll just open it now.” Anon said, picking up the bag and walking into the kitchen, Twilight trailing behind. He then just upturned the bag over the kitchen table, causing three things to fall out: the collar, the leash, and the receipt. Anon picked up the receipt and looked over it. “Huh, so they came in a bundle. That makes sense I guess.” He said more to himself than to Twilight.

Twilight tried to use her magic to pick up the collar. She just glanced over at Anon and giggled sheepishly when nothing happened. She then picked the collar clumsily up in her hooves. “Is this… leather?” She asked, turning the collar round in her hooves. She then looked at the tag. It was the same as it was in the store, however it now had two extra engravings, one on each side: The front had ‘Starlight’ engraved in fancy text, with a small heart dotting the ‘I’, and the back had ‘Property of Anon’ written in the same text, although slightly smaller.

“You’re not bothered by it?” Anon said in answer to Twilight’s question. He then put the receipt down and took a glance over at the collar. Once he determined what was written on it he couldn’t help but groan.

“No not really, I understand that leather is a very popular material used in fashion for some other races, such as griffins. I think it is quite good that parts of a cow’s body are used once they, um, pass. I believe they also prefer that some use comes from themselves when they do, in fact.” Twilight started to say.

“Oh, um, cool then. It wasn’t exactly my choice, though. I would’ve just gone for a plain one if it was my choice.” Anon said, hoping not to start Twilight on full explanation mode.

“Well, I’m sure Lillie knew exactly what she was talking about, and it is a very nice collar.” Twilight said, a smile spreading across her face.

“Right… Well, ignoring what’s written on it, let’s just hope that Starlight likes it, or failing that will at least not make my life difficult when I try to force her into it.”

As if on cue, a very tired looking Starlight slowly made her way into the kitchen. She looked up at Anon, who was now looking straight at her. Twilight was just standing there looking between the two. “Well, I gotta head off now, I’m afraid. Thanks for letting me stay, Anon. Behave yourself, Starlight…” She said, giving Starlight a very disappointed look. Yeah, you know the one.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll catch you around, Twiggles.” Anon said, reaching over to boop her just before she turned, walking back to the front door.

As soon as she was out the door, Anon started. “Right, I’ve just been out to the shop while you were asleep. I got you something so we can actually go out now. Not that that’ll probably happen much.” He reached down and picked up the collar that Twilight had put back on the table.

The instant that Starlight saw what it was, she felt her breath catch. Her cheeks took on a red hue, and she started slowly backing up. She was also very slightly shaking her head.

“I’m afraid this is the only way this is gonna work, unless I literally carry you everywhere, which ain’t happening.” Anon started to walk over to Starlight, collar in hand. She had now backed up into the cupboards on one side of the kitchen, and could go no further. He hated to admit it, but she actually looked really cute at the minute.

He reached forward, collar poised in one hand, and wrapped the collar around her neck. Surprisingly, she didn’t do anything to resist, although that might have had something to do with her major fuck-up last night. He then fastened the buckle on the collar, tightening it just enough so as not to strangle her. Lastly, he shifted it round so the tag was facing forwards.

Backing up and standing, he admired the collar. It fit perfectly, and it actually did look good on her. The engravings on the tag weren’t even that noticeable. “Huh, I guess that mare really did know what she was doing, even without having seen you…” He said, again more to himself than Starlight.

Starlight was yet again sitting there, much like a deer in headlights. “I’m afraid you’re gonna need to keep that on. At least it suits you. I hope you don’t mind that its leather, I kinda got forced into it.”

The instant she realised that it was leather her eyes went wide and she sat down, lifting up her front hooves and pawing at the collar in an attempt to get it off. Surprisingly, when she couldn’t get it off, she actually spoke. “W-why would you get leather! I-it used to be part of a cow! It’s just not right!” She half wailed, tears forming in her eyes.

“Wow, since when did you care about stuff like that? You literally enslaved ponies before.” He stood there and thought for a second. “Wow, I never even realised it. This is some mad poetic justice…” He said to himself, but still loud enough for Starlight to hear.

“I still care about anything dying just to be used as an item of clothing. I never killed anyone, I just wanted to make them happy!”

“Alright, let me put this another way. If the cow was dead anyway, say from old age, what would be the harm in putting it’s body to use, instead of just burying it for it to rot away?” Anon asked with a matter of fact tone and a raised eyebrow.

Starlight just stood there and looked up at him, debating what he just said. “…I suppose that is a very good point.” She admitted. “I still don’t really like it though…”

“Well, I’m afraid you’re going to have to put up with a lot of things you don’t like doing while you’re with me. Don’t forget you’re here as an alternative to probably being trialled and thrown in Canterlot dungeon.”

She didn’t say anything to that, just hanging her head in defeat. “Good girl.” Anon could help but say. She actually looked really cute being all submissive. She probably wanted to retort but most likely thought better of it, because she didn’t move.

“Well, now that I’ve got this out of the way, I’ll make us some breakfast.” He glanced over at the clock on the kitchen wall above the door. “Holy fuck, it’s already one! Okay fuck breakfast, I guess it’s lunch now. Not that it makes much of a difference to me.”

With that, Anon walks over to the fridge, opening it to see if there was anything good within. Being sods law, it turns out that there was barely anything left. “Mother fucker…” He swore to himself “I thought I had more than this… There ain’t enough here to keep a sparrow alive, let alone feed both of us.” He turns around to Starlight, slamming the fridge closed in the process. “Well, turns out I got no food left. I guess we’re gonna be trying out that new collar and leash much sooner than I thought.”

Starlight looked like she was about to cry upon hearing that.

Fifteen minutes later found Anon walking around Ponyville market holding a sizeable bag of groceries. At least, he was attempting to walk. His pace was reduced to a dawdle due to the very obstinate Starlight currently walking at the average speed of Rainbow’s pet, Tank, with her head hung low, horn nearly hitting the ground, and a permanent blush on her face.

Anon had just about had enough. Starlight had been walking at that pace since the instant ponies started looking. “Look, I know this is embarrassing for you, but the quicker we get this over with the quicker we can get back to have lunch. I’m now beyond starving.” He tried to persuade her, at least attempting to be polite before he resorted to literally dragging her slow ass back.

She sped up a tiny bit, now walking at about the speed of the average pony’s walk, which was still slower than Anon’s pace. Her head was still hung, though. “Well, that’s slightly better I guess.” Anon said exasperatedly as he sped up a tiny bit.

About half a minute later, a voice spoke up from their right. “Hey Anon, how’s it goin’?”

He glanced right as the pony spoke, and noticed it was Applejack. He changed his course towards the farm pony’s stall, which contained nothing but apples, unsurprisingly.

“Hey AJ. It’s going alright, I guess as good as it can go minus a couple of issues.” He replied, putting the bags he was carrying on the floor and leaning up against the stall.

“What’s happened then?” She asked, eyeing Starlight warily, who was now sat next to Anon looking at the ground with her ears down.

“Nothing too bad, although she did throw a tantrum last night while I was in bed, trashing my living room. The only thing she really broke was my coffee table, which I need to get a new one. I’ve been needing a better one anyway.”

“That sounds a lot worse than ‘nothing too bad’.” She paused, thinking for a minute. “If ya want, I can probably make ya a new table, we got plenty ‘a wood back at the farm which is just laying around unused.”

“Wow really?” She nodded and smiled. “I mean, it don’t have to be anything too fancy, just a table about 2 feet tall by 2 and 4 feet square. If you don’t mind doing it, I’d be grateful for that. How much would it cost?”

“Don’t worry about cost, Sugarcube, ah still feel pretty bad that ya got roped into this mess.” She tilted her hat a bit in embarrassment.

“Well, cheers then. Not everyday someone randomly comes to you offering to make a new table from scratch for free.”

“Well ah mean, what are friends for?” She paused for another few seconds. “Now ya wanna buy some apples?”

Anon laughed. “Yeah, I guess I will buy some apples. I’ll take a bag of like 12 or something.”

“One bag of apples coming up!” She exclaimed, seemingly too happy that she gets to sell some apples. She ducked down under the stall, and came up a few seconds later with a massive bag of apples that must’ve had like 30 in it.

“Oh, uhhhh, thanks. How much is this?”

“Two bits.” Anon fished around his pocket and grabbed two bits, dropping them on the stall.

“Thank ya kindly, Sugarcube. I’ll get started on yer table probably later today. I’ll try and have it done in a couple ‘a days.”

“Take your time, It’s not too urgent. Thanks again, AJ.” Anon picked up his abundance of bags and finally started walking away, almost dragging Starlight with him.

“Well, that solves one problem. The next problem is a bit more pressing: what are we gonna have for breakfast?”

“Oh thank fuck. My arms are killing me now.” Anon said as he dumped the mass of bags onto the kitchen table, and dropping into one of the chairs. “At least they only have paper bags here. Plastic bags dig into your hands so much.”

He sat at the table for a minute or two before deciding to get up and start emptying the bags. “Hey, do ya want an apple?” He asked Starlight, who was sat at the only other kitchen chair, with the collar and leash still round her neck.

“Not really. I’m not a fan of apples.”

“Oh fucking really, I get like 30 apples only for us both to not really like them. Maybe I can make them into something decent.”

Starlight didn’t say anything in reply. “Well, what do you want for breakfast then? We’ve got enough, now. I was thinking pancakes cos I fucking love them, and screw you for calling me cheap for wanting them.”

“Pancakes are fine.”

“Hey, at least I’m getting spoken answers now. We’re making progress.”

No answer. “Well, I guess I better whip us up some food then.” He turned and opened the newly stocked fridge, grabbing a bottle of milk from it. He then went to the cupboards and grabbed some eggs and flour.

“Uh, what else do I need for pancakes…” He mused to himself, looking blankly into the cupboard.

“Sugar, lemon juice, syrup?” Starlight spoke up

“Oh yeah. Don’t have any lemon juice, we’ll just have to have syrup.”

“And berries and whipped cream.”

“Fuck how much to you want on your pancakes? I got some whipped cream I think. I only got raspberries though.” He opened the fridge and rummaged around until he pulled out a bottle of whipped cream, which he put next to the rest of the stuff on the worktop.

“I’ll make us 3 each, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Kay.” A bowl came out next, and a whisk. He poured all the ingredients for the batter into the bowl (without measuring, because who actually measures stuff out anyway), and started whisking.

A few minutes later, there were 2 plates each with three relatively decent looking pancakes on the table.

“I hope you find them alright. I’m no chef, but I’m not overly horrible at cooking.”

She just shoved her muzzle into it, as she was unable to use magic to eat. It looked pretty adorable to Anon, albeit a bit disgusting at the same time. “They’re alright.” She said, pulling back for a second.

“… Yeah you need a better way to eat beyond just shoving your muzzle into something. And I ain’t feeding you.” She gave Anon a bit of a glare when he said that, which was understandable.

“Maybe there’s such a thing as cutlery that hooks onto your hoof… I mean, earth ponies have gotta eat somehow, right?” He mused as Starlight continued to eat with her muzzle.

For the minute Anon just put that out of his mind and resorted to eating his own pancakes, which were pretty good in his opinion.

It only took them five or so minutes to eat their breakfast, which they did in silence.

Once they had finished their breakfast, Anon headed into the living room, him having dumped the plates and cutlery in the sink for cleaning later, or whenever he could be assed.

He looked in despair at the place where his coffee table used to be, but then remembered that he’d hopefully have a replacement in a day or two. He’d have to make do with the arm of a chair for coffee in the meantime.

Starlight followed him in, just as he took a seat down in his favourite armchair. Surprisingly, she spoke. “What are we going to do now, then?”

“Well, I don’t know what you’re gonna do, but I’m gonna do some reading. I haven’t been able to since you ‘arrived’. If you want something to do, go clean the dishes up or something. Do something useful that makes up for you ruining my shit last night.”

She didn’t look pleased that Anon suggested her doing chores like a maid, or well, a slave, but she didn’t say anything, and simply turned around and made her way back into the kitchen.

“Wow is she actually going to do it? Maybe she really does want to get on my good side after last night. Or she’s like your typical woman and feels obliged to actually do the house chores. Maybe I could make use of her…” Anon contemplated quietly to himself once he assumed Starlight was out of range.

He proceeded to get up and look through the now neatly organised books on the bookshelf for something to read. He didn’t have many books, but he had at least one book on every topic you could think of.

“Well, at least Twilight re-arranged my bookshelf. How nice of her. This is the most arranged it’s ever been.” It turned out while Anon had been out, Twilight had finished cleaning up his living room, which included re-arranging the bookshelf.

He found the book he was looking for quite easily, and proceeded to pick it out and sit back down with it. It was quite ironic, really: the book he selected was one he had only started reading recently, and was some history book of sorts about the Crystal Empire. Anon had never been there, but had learnt about it from Twilight and the others. It seemed interesting to him, so he decided to do some reading on it.

It was quite ironic, really. He had read (and heard) that King Sombra had enslaved the crystal ponies, and the book contained some details which he definitely hadn’t heard before, and he himself had now, despite not intending to, enslaved a pony. He couldn’t help but think of himself like Sombra for that.

At least Anon didn’t literally torture ponies when they didn’t do what they were told.

But he might be willing to do some of those other things. They actually seemed to intrigue him…

Chapter 5

It turned out that Starlight was exceptionally clumsy when using only her hooves for anything. That was evident when Anon walked into the kitchen to grab a coffee a couple of hours later.

As a result, he should’ve expected what he found. Starlight was currently sat at the kitchen table with her head in her hooves, her mane starting to stick out a bit. There was half a pile of washed plates next to the sink on one side, not in the drying rack. The cutlery and cups and other stuff was all still in the sink, which was also full to the brim with soapy water which was at best lukewarm.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out there was quite a lot of dampness on the table around where Starlight was sat. She’d actually been crying from the look of everything. Seeing the poor pony in such a state caused any annoyance Anon had to fly right out the window. How could he be mad at her like this?

Completely ignoring the state of the washing up, and his need for coffee, he walked over to where Starlight was sat, grabbing and dragging a chair over as he went. He sat down and actually put his arm around her, which made her jump.

He kind of wondered how he didn’t hear her at all while he was reading. Deciding to ignore that as well, he spoke up.

“I can guess what you’re crying about, so I’m not gonna say it. I’m not a bad person, Starlight, although I may be a bit of a sarcastic asshole at times. I’m not mad at you any more, and I’m not gonna get mad just because you couldn’t do washing up or some other menial chore. While you’re here, as long as you don’t try anything or wreck my shit, I’ll be as nice to you as possible. I’ll also help you to become accustomed to doing things only with your hooves, as far as I can help with that, that is.”

She didn’t say anything. Anon sighed.

“Yeah, I’m beyond bad at cheering people up. Unfortunately, these circumstances are far from ideal, for both of us, although you definitely drew the short straw.”

She did say something this time.

“I don’t hate you. I hate myself. And Twilight as well for ruining my life. Although if I wasn’t such a screw up then she wouldn’t’ve needed to ruin it.”

Wow, that’s the best answer I’ve managed to get out of her so far. She blames herself? Well, that’s one good step to redemption; at least she recognises that she fucked up. Anon thought to himself as he thought of something to say that would hopefully get her to elaborate.

“Well, that’s good to hear at least. T-that you don’t hate me, I mean.” Good job, retard. “Well, you have a chance to, uh, fix yourself so-to-say now. Why don’t you tell me about what happened? I might be able to help. All I’ve heard is a load of shit from Twilight and her cohort that consisted of ‘she enslaved a village of ponies and stole their cutie marks for no reason’.”

That got her to raise her head And look at Anon. “You don’t care?” She said, sounding a bit in awe.

“If you’d’ve seen some of the shit that some people have done in my world and they’ve walked away free, what you did would look like all you did was fart really loudly in class in comparison.”

Surprisingly, she actually giggled a little at what you said. We’re actually getting somewhere! Maybe I can do this whole ‘cheering up’ thing after all.

“Was your world really that bad?”

“Fuck no. It was about a thousand times worse. From what I’ve been able to tell in the time I’ve been here, Equestria is like a utopia. Crime is nearly non-existent, everyone appears to always be happy, there’s no pollution, you’re all one united nation instead of being split up, and I could go into many, many other details that make this place better than my world.”

“I would actually be quite interested to learn about your world. If I’m gonna be stuck here indefinitely, I at least want to learn about the strange being I’m living with.”

“It’s nice that you’re finally coming around. I really don’t want us to be at each-other’s throats all the time, that would get very tiresome very quickly.”

“While you’ve been reading I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And crying. I decided pretty much the same thing. I also realised that despite your anger towards me, it’s not your fault that I’m in this situation, it’s mine, so I’d rather make this as painless for you as possible.”

“You know, you really don’t sound like a villain at all. As I said before, Twilight and her friends made it sound like you were some horrible pony that didn’t care for others and only cared about herself and her magic.”

“That’s because I’m not a villain. I’ve made some mistakes in the past, and I’ve tried solving them in all the wrong ways. I realised that quite some time ago, but by that point it was far too late. I’d already started my old village, and taken the cutie marks of several ponies. I hated myself for what I did, but if I ever told them, they would’ve probably killed me.”

Anon’s eyes opened quite wide upon hearing that. “So let me guess: as a result, you had no choice but to keep the town going, and when Twilight and her friends showed up, you panicked and thought she was going to go back and tell Celestia about the town, and then you’d get arrested and trialed for it?”

“Wow, you were pretty much spot on. Aside from the fact that because I’d been doing it for so long, I had actually kinda brainwashed myself in a way. I’m not trying to make what I did sound like it wasn’t my fault, but at the time I genuinely thought I was going to be doing them a favour. It took them finally beating me to un-brainwash myself to realise what I was actually doing, and the consequences. I also, um, may have thought that you were some kind of monster or something at first. After today, I can actually see that you’re not.”

Anon now just sat there and looked at Starlight. A few minutes ago he didn’t even know this pony that had pretty much appeared out of nowhere. She also thought of him as a monster when she first arrived. Man, I must’ve given off a pretty bad impression for that, he thought.

“Well, this explains a hell of a lot. I’m actually really glad you finally saw that I’m not a monster, and just a regular guy stuck in some weird utopian horse land.

It was at that point that he realised he still had his arm around her. He withdrew it quickly, going a bit red. “Uhh, sorry.” What the fuck was that? When you carried her back home from the castle you were absolutely fine, now you jolt back and fucking blush just from having your arm around her while comforting her. You fucking weirdo. At least wait a while before you start falling in love with the girl you just practically enslaved.

After a few seconds of sitting there in awkward silence, Anon finally got up, stretching as he did. “Well, at least we’ve now got a few things sorted out. I see you didn’t really manage to do the washing up, so I’ll just do it myself now.”

Starlight sat there watching Anon in mild curiosity as he did the washing up. She was so used to using magic for everything that seeing a strange creature with hands manipulating things as easily as she did with magic kind of intrigued her.

As Anon was scrubbing a plate down, he spoke up: “You know, I don’t know why I didn’t do this last night. Well, I do: I was too cold and tired to care. But either way, if you’re going to be living here permanently you can’t keep sleeping on the couch every night. I have a guest bedroom upstairs that you can have. You can do what you want to it as long as it doesn’t interfere with anything. I’ll help you move stuff around and shit if you want as well.”

“Thank you. I would like to have my own room. I genuinely thought you were going to make me sleep on the couch or on the end of your bed the entire time I’m here…”

“Hey, you can sleep on the end of my bed if you want, only I don’t know if I snore so I may keep you up.”

“No, I think I’ll take the guest bedroom.” She said, blushing a bit. “I truly am glad though that you’re a decent, er, pony?”

“Person.”

“Person. After last night, and now this morning I was coming to dread what life might be like here.”

Anon continued washing up the plates. “Yeah, unfortunately you ended up seeing me when I was hella tired last night. And then this morning was pretty obvious. I guarantee I’m a decent guy once you get to know me.”

Things significantly improved after that much-needed conversation, for both of them. Anon went about doing the chores which he had put off for a few days (namely doing the laundry, tidying up his room and cleaning the house a bit. Starlight tried her best to help him where she could, however being without magic meant Starlight was very limited on what she could do.

She could still use her mouth, and use her hooves quite clumsily, but that was still enough to help with the non-sensitive jobs, such as cleaning the floors. Anon still hadn’t gotten used to the idea of a magical vacuum cleaner. He also couldn’t wrap his head around the difference between the magic in devices like the vacuum cleaner and his fridge, and unicorn magic, and why his apparent ‘immunity’ to unicorn magic didn’t apply to in-world magic.

That was where they were at now: cleaning the living room. Starlight was using her mouth to manoeuvre the somehow very quiet vacuum cleaner around the carpet while Anon was using a feather duster to dust off the higher places.

“Hey, I got a question for you, if you know the answer.” Anon said randomly, making Starlight jump a bit due to the relative silence they had been in for the last few minutes.

“Hm?” She said through a mouthful of handle, making Anon chuckle a bit.

“I know you probably don’t really want to talk about magic, but how come that vacuum cleaner works?”

Starlight stopped moving said device, pausing to think. She then dropped the handle (which was now covered in her saliva, which Anon tried his best to ignore). “What do you mean? It runs off magic, just like the fridge in the kitchen and every other appliance in Equestria.”

Anon gave her a deadpan stare. “I have a magic dampening field around me, remember. That’s why you cant use magic.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Well, I don’t know too much, but I know that there is a difference between in-world magic and unicorn magic. I never studied in-world magic, only unicorn magic, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t be affected by your field. Maybe your field is tuned to only disrupt unicorn magic?”

“Now you see to me that would suggest two things: one, that someone specifically engineered my ‘magic resistance field’ to only disrupt that of unicorns, and, well, alicorns, and two that these devices don’t truly run using magic. Back on my world, we had all of these same devices, and they were nearly identical. However, they ran off something we called electricity. To many people that might not know what electricity is, it might seem like magic.”

“Wow, that sounds really fascinating. How does this ‘electricity’ work?”

“It’s… quite complicated. I don’t know everything there is to know, but I knew more than your average person. I was studying to become an engineer when I got transported here a couple of years ago. That included learning about electricity.”

“We have all day today, you know. And tomorrow. And pretty much every day for the next, well, forever.”

“That’s a good point. Well, I have quite a lot of really interesting things that I could tell you about what humans accomplished without magic. But lets finish cleaning first.”

“Oh please do tell us! I’ll sort the cleaning out for you!” Came a relatively familiar voice from nowhere, making both Anon and Starlight jump. A couple of seconds later, there was a very bright flash, and suddenly Discord, the god of chaos was sitting there smugly in Anon’s favourite chair. He snapped his fingers once, and the vacuum cleaner that was on the floor grew a set of 4 legs, started up again by itself, and started moving round the room at breakneck speeds, including on the walls and ceiling.

Anon was just stood there looking at Discord with disapproval, occasionally glancing at the vacuum cleaner which was running around the place. Starlight was just standing there in shock, unable to make her mind up whether she should be looking at the crazy vacuum cleaner, or the amalgamation of creatures now sat in front of her. “Really, Discord? Now’s not really the best time for your shit.” Anon said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Aw, whats wrong, Anon? Don’t want any help doing the chores? Starlight here was happy enough to help.” He snapped his fingers again, causing Starlight to yelp as a very frilly maid suit appeared on her, making her blush profusely.

Anon’s eyes went a bit wide upon seeing Starlight in her new attire, and quickly averted his gaze back to Discord. “I mean, I guess you’re welcome to help, and you’re always welcome here, but why now?”

“I happened to hear you say that you were going to tell Starlight a few things about your home world. I’m interested in seeing what kind of chaotic stuff your species has come up with. Also I was bored.”

“How did you hear that? Have you been spying on me?!” Anon asked, getting quite annoyed at the fact that someone may have seen all the shit that’s gone on in the last day or so.

“Ah, details details. Why don’t you just get on with your stories?” He replied, waving his hand in dismissal, as well as snapping the fingers on his lion paw, making a stool appear in front of the chair, albeit on it’s side, which he then put his legs on, as well as a cup of what Anon assumed was tea.

Anon stared at Discord a little longer, hoping he was going to confess, but Discord just sat there with an expectant smile on his deformed face. Finally Anon gave in and sighed. “Fine, whatever, make yourself comfortable, not that you aren’t already doing so. Can I at least have my chair back?”

Discord started humming, tapping his chin in mock thought. In the end he said “Nah, I like your chair. Its comfortable. You can join your pet on the couch and pet her while you talk.”

That made Anon blush, and Starlight glared at Discord in a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

“She’s not my pet.” Anon said, attempting to control the blush on his cheeks, but unfortunately it was way too severe for Discord not to notice.

“Oh, I see that blush, don’t try to hide it!” His grin grew much wider, and much more devilish. “You like the idea, don’t you? If you didn’t want me to assume she’s your pet then don’t put a collar on her.” He then snapped his fingers again, causing both Anon and Starlight to vanish, reappearing on the couch, with Starlight laying over Anon’s lap, and Anon holding a brush.

“Discord, please.” Anon half begged, just wanting to be rid of the draconequus as fast as possible.

“You’re no fun. Fine.” He then snapped his fingers again, causing Anon and himself to swap places, with Anon holding Discord’s cup of tea and his feet on the sideways stool, and Discord now petting Starlight on the couch, while Starlight was trying her best to get off.

“This isn’t better. And do you want to hear about my world or not?”

“Ugh, fiiiine. I’m done now.” He then snapped his fingers one last time, causing Starlight to teleport onto Anon’s lap on his couch. She stopped fidgeting andjust looked up at Anon with a pleading expression. Anon thought it was fucking adorable, but agreed with her anyway.

“Right, well, what I was going to tell Starlight about was electricity, which from what I can see, is very similar to your in-world magic.” Anon said mainly to Discord.

“Normal magic is so boring. Why can’t you talk about any wars you might have fought?” He asked, obviously not appealed by the thought of learning about what to him was ‘lesser magic’.

“Just shut up and listen. You might actually find it interesting.”

It turned out that Discord did enjoy the topic. Well, some of it anyway. He was quite interesting in finding out what kinds of machinery humanity had created, although the science behind it bored him immensely. Anon had been talking for what felt to him like about half an hour, but for Discord was an eternity. He was now actually asleep on the couch.

Starlight on the other hand was very interested in all of it, and was listening intently for almost the entire thing. Anon’s hand had actually started petting her head as he spoke as well.

“So let me get this straight. You have these machines which can show a world… within themselves?” Starlight asked, trying to wrap her head around what Anon was saying.

“Kind of. They show things that are stored on the machine, but it is merely a series of lights made to trick the eye. Its called virtual reality.” Anon explained as best he could.

“I don’t know of any magic that can do that…”

“It seems that our technology has made some advancements that even magic can’t do.” Anon chuckled, although secretly he was still quite disappointed that he will never be able to use the technology again.

They finally stopped talking after that, Anon’s throat actually starting to get sore after so long just talking. Discord was snoring in the background.

“I didn’t even realise Discord could sleep.” Anon said, glancing over at him as he gave off a particularly loud snore.

“Oh, I don’t.” He said, opening his eyes and sitting up, which also made both Anon and Starlight jump.

“But… You were just snoring.” Anon tried to reason.

“Intentionally. I had to make it look like I was sleeping.”

“Um. Why?”

“So you would think I was asleep, obviously. Are you done with your little talk?” He said, getting up and stretching, his body literally stretching like rubber.

“Uh, I guess. My throat’s getting kinda sore, and its getting late.” He glanced over at the clock which was now reading quarter to eight.”

“You call this late?!” He exclaimed, stopping his over-stretching. “You should come to my place some time. Time has no meaning there, so you can stay up as long as you like.”

“I’m good thanks, I like my sleep, and my time. It makes sense.”

“What fun is there in making sense though?”

“More than you can think of.”

Discord just sighed. “Well, I can see that my reason for staying is gone. Maybe I can head over and see if Fluttershy wants to have dinner with me.” He raised his talon to click his claws, but Anon stopped him.

“Actually, hold up a sec. Maybe you could help me understand this. Do you know why my magic dampening field only affects unicorn magic?”

“Of course I do. I know everything there is to know about magic.” He chuckled. “I designed it that way.”

It took Anon a few seconds for that to sink in. “Wait… you designed this magic field around me?!” Anon exclaimed, standing up off the chair, causing Starlight to fall off his lap with a squeak.

“Of course I did! No-one else could design a field that completely prevents unicorn and alicorn magic from being cast inside it.”

“Why?! Do you have any idea how much of a pain this has been for other ponies around me?”

“I’m probably the only creature that actually does know what it’s been like, because I’ve seen the chaos that is caused from it for ages. It’s a brilliant design I think, one of my better creations. I’ve sat there laughing many times as a result of it.” He was currently laughing quite a bit at the minute, although Anon was glaring at Discord something fierce.

“When did you put the spell on me?” He asked as calmly as he could.

“When you first arrived. Well, I guess I’ll get out of your manes. You two have some fun, kinky sex tonight! Tata!” He then snapped his fingers one last time and vanished.

Anon was left standing there, staring angrily at the spot where Discord was mere seconds ago. Starlight was standing on the floor, another massive blush on her cheeks.

“Anon? Are you okay?” She asked, shoving her muzzle into Anon’s leg, much like a cat would.

After a minute, Anon replied. “Well, at least I know how I got here now. I should have suspected he’d have something to do with it.” He then just started walking to the stairs. “Well, it is actually late, regardless of what he says, and I’m tired as fuck, so I think we should head to bed.”

“Is he always like this?”

“Mostly. Occasionally I can have a good laugh with the guy, but he’s generally just a cunt. And now I dislike him even more after essentially finding out he’s the reason I’m here in the first place.”

“Is it really that bad here?”

“Oh, no, this place is amazing, and in some ways I think he did me a favour bringing me here. This world is better than mine in many ways. Its just I’ll never get to see any of my friends and family anymore, or use all the technology I told you about earlier, and quite a few other things.”

“I probably wont either. Get to see my friends and family again, I mean. All my ‘friends’ hate me because I took their cutie marks and lied to them for years…”

“Try and make new friends, then. You can definitely consider me a friend, and I’m sure that Twilight would be willing to befriend you if you can prove to her you’re not evil and such.”

“T-thanks. It might be a little difficult being stuck in here all the time though.”

“Good point. And it wouldn’t exactly come off good if you tried to make friends while being attached to a leash outside.”

“Do I really have to wear that?” She said exasperatedly.

“Yes. At least for now. To me you appear to be much better than you were, but no offense I still don’t know if you’re just acting and trying to convince me to let you go out just so you can run away.”

“I understand…” She said dejectedly.

“When Twilight comes round you can try and prove to her you’ve, well, changed, or at least improved though.”

“I guess.”

“Maybe in time. But look, I’m actually getting quite tired and hungry, and I kinda wanna go and take a bath. I’ll shove something in the oven for us to eat, and take a bath while it’s cooking. Can you keep an eye on the timer and come and get me out of the bath when there’s about 5 minutes left on it?”

She just nodded in response. “Alright, lets go decide what to have.”

Prologue

There was a disruption throughout the snowy mountains to the north of what was just until recently known as Equaltown. Starlight Glimmer was currently on the mountain pass to the caves trying her best to outrun the several ponies pursuing her. In a wooden cart being pulled behind her were the cutie marks of the six elements of harmony, currently held in glass jars.

There was a bridge coming up: a very narrow arch of rock that spanned from one side of a massive ravine to the other, and was the only way across for miles. She turned around, noticing the four ponies on her tail, and sprinted over it as fast as she could. Unaware of what she was planning, they just continued to run after her. Part way across the bridge, however, quite a big lump of snow came crashing into her, causing the cart she was pulling to break off and fall into the ravine, along with the glass jars. She fell over, and looked over the edge after the jars that were falling along with the remains of the cart. She pushed a pulse of magic through her horn and reached out to the jars, barely catching them before they hit the bottom. Lifting them back up, she then continued on over the bridge.

As soon as she was across, she quickly spun around, and fired off a spell at the bridge, making it explode into millions of tiny rocks and snow. The ponies on the other side were startled by the explosion and were forced to skid to a halt to prevent themselves from being thrown off. Starlight didn’t get to see what they did next, because she instantly carried on as soon as she saw her spell worked. She could see the caves coming up, hidden in the side of one of the tallest mountains. She was free, and she had the cutie marks of six of the most powerful ponies she knew of, including a princess!

She was right upon the cave now, just about to enter. As soon as she was inside, they wouldn’t have any hope of stopping her. However, fate seemed to not be on her side, as she looked up and noticed two ponies flying overhead: one of them with skis on his hooves. The pony with skis on (Double Diamond) was dropped onto a massive pile of snow that led up to the cave, and he began to ski towards the cave entrance, causing an avalanche of snow to start falling behind Starlight. She tried to outrun the snow, but it was too fast for her, and the instant she crossed the threshold of the cave entrance, a massive pile of snow suddenly fell on top of her. It completely buried her in less than a second. It didn’t, however, bury the glass jars hovering behind her. Once the snow had enveloped her, it caused her to loose concentration, thus ending the spell that was keeping the glass jars up. They fell unceremoniously to the ground, where each one shattered into many pieces, and thus freeing the cutie marks trapped inside.

The cutie marks flew away at incredible speeds, on their way back to their respective owners. The ponies that were pursuing her caught up just after the avalanche, standing just in front of where the snow covered Starlight. After a few seconds, Starlight emerged from the snow, with a look a pure fury on her face. She saw the other ponies, and charged up a spell to fire at them. Just before her spell fired however, Twilight Sparkle landed in front of the ponies and managed to raise a shimmering purple shield around them, blocking the spell Starlight fired just in time, and causing it to harmlessly impact the shield and dissipate.

Starlight looked on in anger, slightly confused at how her spell, one that she had studied for years, could just be blocked so easily. “Wh- I studied that spell for years! How can you-” she started but was cut off by Twilight.

“I studied magic for years too! But what I didn't know then was that studying could only take me so far. Each of my friends has taught me something different about myself! It was their unique gifts and passions and personalities that helped bring out the magic inside of me! I never would have learned that I represent the element of magic without these five! And I certainly wouldn't be here to stop you now!” She said, as the other five appeared and gathered around. Starlight just looked on in annoyance, not caring about what Twilight had to say.

“Spare me your sentimental nonsense! I gave these ponies real friendships they never could've had otherwise!” She tried to argue back.

“How do you know that?! You never even gave us a chance!” Double Diamond, retorted.

At that, Starlight just grew angrier, and charged another spell. After a second, the spell went off, creating a massive field of blue energy that expanded outwards, blinding all the ponies gathered, and instantly melted all the snow Starlight was standing on. Once the ponies could see again, all they could see was Starlight running off through the cave.

“She’s getting away!” Rainbow Dash shouted, as she flew towards the cave.

“Well, let’s go after her then!” Double Diamond shouted back, also running towards the cave. Now that all the ponies had their cutie marks back, capturing her was going to be a much easier task. Twilight also spread her wings and bolted into the cave after Rainbow, and as soon as she was in, lit up her horn, illuminating a massive portion of the cave around them, allowing them to see. The others weren’t far behind, resorting to giving chase on hoof.

They could still see Starlight, as she wasn’t very fast compared to the two ponies flying after her. She turned around and saw them gaining on her, and charged a spell, firing it off at them. The spell impacted the cave ceiling, causing a load of rock and dust to come tumbling down behind them, making the others stop behind them to avoid the debris. Twilight fired a spell herself, not aimed at Starlight, but at the cave ceiling in front of her. It caused the ceiling to start raining rock, just like with Starlight’s spell, however Twilight then fired off a second, then a third at the ceiling, making the cave start shaking like an earthquake was happening with the amount of debris coming from the ceiling.

Starlight also noticed this, and was forced to stop to avoid being crushed. She turned around, very obviously furious, and sent another spell flying towards them. It forced Twilight to dodge and hit the cave wall, causing her to yelp and fall onto the cave floor in a slight daze. Rainbow continued going, however, flying straight towards Starlight. She was stopped however just short by a light blue aura appearing around her tail, making her jerk backwards and hang there limply by her tail for a few seconds, just like Twilight does sometimes.

“You ruined everything for me, the least you can do is let me go so I can be by myself!” She shouted in a very angry tone at Rainbow who was just hanging there by her tail, now looking at Starlight with a very hard glare. In the few seconds it took Starlight to say that, however, Twilight had recovered, and was now upon Starlight, literally slamming into her.

The wind was knocked out of Starlight as she and Twilight tumbled to the floor in a tangle of hooves. The others that were following on hoof were just arriving, a couple out of breath from doing so much running. The spell that Starlight was using to hold Rainbow was also broken as Twilight smashed into her, freeing Rainbow and making her drop to the floor with a cute squeak, unable to catch herself in time.

Pinkie was instantly next to Twilight and Starlight, who were groaning on the floor. Twilight was the first to recover, and as soon as she noticed Starlight below her, she cast a spell, causing a purple glow to cover Starlight’s horn. As soon as she did that, she glanced up, and noticed Pinkie standing next to them, smiling widely at her.

“Great job Twi! That was so cool how you just swooped in and hit her; you were all like ZOOM and then SMASH and then the two of you just went tumbling to the floor in a heap!” Pinkie said way too fast, Twilight barely catching what the mare just said.

“Uhhhh, thanks I guess. Although I don’t think I’ll be doing that again anytime soon. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have a magic dampening ring would you?” Twilight replied, hoping that the chaotic Pink pony would have one. She just ‘happened’ to have so much random stuff on hoof, she thought she would at least try her luck.

“Sure thing Twi, I got one right here!” She replied, reaching into her mane with a hoof, and pulling out a small golden ring with engravings etched around the outside. “I always keep one on hoof in case of evil unicorn dictators being captured!”

Twilight took the ring in her magic, muttering a ‘thanks’, and ignoring the rest of what she said because it made her head hurt, and moved the ring over to Starlight’s horn. By this point, Starlight was now just coming to, and opened her eyes just in time to see the ring be pushed down onto her horn, completely preventing her from using magic. Her eyes went wide, and she started struggling, trying to use her magic, and even physically push Twilight off of her, but to no avail.

“NO! NOT MY HORN! MY MAGIC!” she wailed, frantically trying to push her captor off. “PLEASE!” but the ring was already in place, the runes on the outside glowing brightly, showing that the ring was in effect, and blocking a substantial amount of magic trying to be used.

“I’m sorry, Starlight, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to come with us. I’m placing you under arrest for breaking several laws, including forcefully removing a ponies’ cutie mark, brainwashing and other crimes which I really don’t know.” Twilight said as Starlight started to cry, obviously distraught at having her ability to use magic taken away. “You won’t be allowed to use your magic, for obvious reasons.”

All the others had now gathered around looking on to the crying Starlight with varying expressions. Some conveyed anger, some conveyed contempt, and a couple conveyed sympathy (Fluttershy and Twilight). Twilight, despite sounding serious, actually felt quite sorry for Starlight. She had a pretty strong feeling that Starlight had some hidden feelings that had been causing her behaviour, and those thoughts were getting stronger seeing Starlight break down so quickly after having her ability to use magic removed.

Everyone stood there for a couple of minutes, just watching on. It was quite awkward in fact, especially for Starlight, who was now just sitting there with her head in her hooves. She knew that she wouldn’t be getting out of this one with her magic inhibited, and her mind was being filled with thoughts of what her life was like before she started her village.

“Well, I think it’s about time we got out of this cave. I don’t know about you but this cold, damp cave isn’t doing my coat and mane any good.” Rarity finally broke the silence, patting her mane in her usual fashion.

“Yeah, lets. We can decide on what to do with Starlight on the way.” Twilight said, indicating towards Starlight, who just ignored her and continued to sit there with her head in her hooves, however she was no longer crying. “Rainbow, Applejack, could you two escort her out with us please?” She addressed the two mentioned ponies, who both nodded, although Rainbow looked a bit annoyed, understandably.

They both made their way over to Starlight, who didn’t notice due to her still having her head in her hooves, and they quite forcefully pulled her to her hooves, causing her to squeak slightly in surprise.

“Everyone ready?” Twilight asked. A series of nods went around the group, to which Twilight also nodded, and the group started to make their way back the way they came, heading back to Equaltown.

It took the large group of ponies quite a while to get out of the cave and back down to Equaltown. All the ponies were outside talking, some with genuinely happy smiles on their faces, some with more grim expressions, most likely because they realised just how much of their lives they had lost. Either way, as the group walked back into town with Starlight in tow, now with a gag on in addition to the ring on her horn, all eyes turned to them, and then to Starlight who was simply standing there looking around with what was probably supposed to be a neutral stare, but the fear was apparent in her eyes.

All the ponies in the town adopted what one could only call sinister grins (well, most of them anyway) upon sighting Starlight having been captured. Before any of them could open their mouths however, Twilight stepped forward. “Hello, before you do or say anything, please can you hear me out!” Twilight said as loudly as she could without shouting, causing all the ponies to divert their gazes onto Twilight with curiosity.

“Yes, we have managed to capture the pony responsible for quite possibly ruining your lives and taking everything, including your cutie marks, away from you. She has quite obviously committed quite a few very serious crimes, and as such, she must receive her punishment. As a princess of Equestria, it is my duty to ensure that the punishment is given and is fair, and as such she will be coming back with us. I understand that many of you might hold anger towards her, and that anger is very understandable, but believe me when I say that I will ensure that she will understand the severity of her actions.”

There was a brief pause while Twilight took in the reactions of the ponies. Some seemed to understand, and some seemed less convinced, and had scowls on their faces directed at Twilight. “I have spoken with the others who helped us to catch her, and might I add that we wouldn’t have ever done so without them,” she turned and gave a grateful smile at Double Diamond, Nightglider, Party favour and Sugar Belle, who all gave her warm smiles in return, “and they all agree and think it would be for the best for Starlight to come back with us. If you have any doubts, please ask one of them. However, now that you are all indeed free and have got your cutie marks back, you do not have to remain here, and are free to go and make new friends, and remember who you once were! Or if you want, to create a new life for yourselves.” She ended with a smile, which caused many of the ponies now gathered to start whispering among themselves.

After a few seconds, one pony in the crowd spoke up: “I think we all wish to stay here in this town. Despite it being somewhere we were all oppressed, we all have considered it home for quite a long time.”

Another pony spoke up after that: “We can make this town a much nicer place to live, and we can all get to know each-other again, properly!”

Twilight smiled at that. “I think that sounds like a marvellous idea.” She turned around to the other four ponies, silently asking their opinions on the matter. Double Diamond spoke up.

“I like that idea. I don’t feel like leaving either, this place is indeed my home.” The other three nodded in agreement, causing Twilight’s smile to widen slightly.

“Excellent. Well, I guess that’s everything-“ Before she could continue, a pink blur fell down in front of her, materialising into Pinkie Pie.

“OH, OH, YOU KNOW WHAT THIS CALLS FOR!? A PARTY!!” The pink pony bellowed, causing several ponies, especially Twilight, to jump. Pinkie then proceeded to pull out her party cannon from wherever she kept it, and all of a sudden the whole town was littered in party decorations as the cannon was fired, which did cause every pony to jump.

“Well, I guess we could stay for a while…”

Chapter 2

“What kind of a castle is this?” Starlight asked no-one in particular as her and the other five ponies ‘escorting’ her approached the giant crystal tree.

“It’s Twilight’s castle. It was grown from some weird chest that the tree of harmony produced after we defeated Tirek.” Rainbow replied, hovering just above the others.

“Grown. Seriously.” Starlight replied, giving Rainbow a deadpan look.

“Oh, it’s true! You should have seen it! There was this massive rainbow and then the chest rose up into the air through the rainbow and landed and then the tree grew like ‘WHOSH’ right out of the ground!” Pinkie said, jumping around and making stupid movements all the while.

“Sounds amazing.” Starlight said in an obviously sarcastic tone.

“Oh it was!” Was all she got as a reply.

“Well, enough about how the castle was created, let’s head on inside: I don’t know about you but I’m pretty cold out here.” Rarity says, shivering to prove her point.

“I agree. We should see if Spike’s been alright while we’ve been away. I bet Twi is a might worried about having left him overnight.” Inputs Applejack, who starts up the stairs to the front door, and proceeds to open it for the others.

Starlight silently makes her way up the stairs alongside the other four, looking up at the castle in wonder. Wow. This must be some exceptionally strong magic to have grown an entire castle made of crystal. She thought to herself as she crossed the threshold.

In front of her she could see a small purple and green dragon who was currently walking towards the group with a feather duster tucked under his arm.

“Hey guys! How was your trip?” Spike asked, stopping just short of them. “Where’s Twilight? And who’s this?” He said after Rainbow shut the door behind them.

“Twilight is currently in the process of sorting out living arrangements for Starlight here.” Rainbow said, flying over Starlight’s head and tapping her head with a hoof a couple of times.

“Our trip was… eventful.” Says Rarity, giving Starlight a sideways glance. “If you ask Twilight about it when she gets back, I’m certain she’d be willing to tell you all the details. For now, we, or at least I, am very tired and just want to get back to the Boutique for some much needed shut-eye.”

“And I really need to get back to check on the animals. Oh, I hope they’ve been alright with me gone all night…” Fluttershy added, adopting a worried expression.

“I’m sure Twilight won’t be long, Sugarcube, and you can then head straight back to check on them. And I’m sure they’re fine.” Applejack reassured Fluttershy, putting a hoof around her.

“Well, why don’t you guys just head back then? Why do you have to wait for Twilight?” Spike asked, obviously not understanding what was happening.

“Twilight asked all of us to look after Starlight until she gets back.” Rarity said.

“Oh, ok. Well, do you guys want to wait in the throne room for Twilight then? Better than standing here in the cold hallway.” Asked Spike, resolving to just ask Twilight about what was happening when she returned.

“Sure, I’m not cold, but at least I can give my wings a rest. And I can also have a nap.” Rainbow said, already darting off towards the throne room. All the others followed suit heading towards the throne room, Starlight trailing behind at a slower pace, taking in the castle as much as she could.

The throne room doors suddenly burst open, revealing Twilight, with a shivering Anon standing behind her, rubbing his arms together in an attempt to keep warm. “Fuck me, this castle’s absolutely freezing, why don’t you get some central heating in this place?” He said, opting to take a seat in the nearest available chair, which happened to be Twilight’s throne.

“Hello to you too, Anon. And what’s central heating?” Rarity said, disapproving of Anon’s entrance.

“Oh, right, no electricity.” He mumbled to himself, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “It’s just a way of heating up a building without the need of a fire or magic.” He said, not really caring about going into a full explanation.

“How does that work?” says Rainbow, who got jolted awake from her nap by the doors slamming open, and was now looking at Anon with a curious but tired expression.

“Just… don’t worry. I’ll explain another time. Now where’s this ‘Starlight’ you was talking about?” He turns and asks Twilight, just wanting to get this over with so he could get back to his nice warm home.

Twilight looks at the others expectantly, because she couldn’t see Starlight around the map table. Rarity just pointed over to a corner of the room. Both Anon and Twilight glanced over, and sure enough Starlight was sat there, just looking over at the group in the middle. Her eyes were somewhat wide, as they noticed her specifically looking at Anon.

“Oh, she doesn’t look anything like Stalin. I’m totally not disappointed.” Said Anon as he locked eyes with said mare.

“Who’s Stalin?” Asks Pinkie, who just pops up in front of Anon with a massive smile on her face, making the two break eye contact.

“I’ll tell you another time. Maybe. It’s not pleasant.” Anon replies in a slightly irritated tone. He’s never liked it when Pinkie just pops up in front of him.

“She’s been there since we first walked in.” Rarity interrupted.

“I can’t say I’m surprised to be honest. She is a weird one, her.” Applejack says, glancing over at her.

Anon decides to get up out of the chair, and makes his way over to Starlight, who just continues staring up at him with wide eyes. “Well, I’ll give you one thing: you’re certainly adorable.” He says, and to punctuate his point he reaches his hand forward and presses his finger on her nose for a second before pulling it back with a slight grin.

Starlight goes cross-eyed, looking at her muzzle where she was just booped. She also scrunches her muzzle up, making her look even cuter. “Yep, I’m definitely gonna have fun with you. Although, I can’t see how a pony this cute could have done something as bad as Stalin” He says to himself, but still loud enough for her to hear him.

“Anon?” Twilight calls over from her throne, which she has now reclaimed. Anon turns around and looks at her with an eyebrow raised. “How are you gonna get her back to yours?”

“Dunno. Carry her maybe?” He replied.

“Carry her? Seriously? BWAHAHA!” Rainbow exclaimed and burst out laughing.

“Well, have you got a better idea? I mean, I’ve gotta make sure she doesn’t run away somehow, and unless you have a collar and leash on hand I don’t see much other choice.”

Rainbow started calming down, and as she did Twilight said “Well you have a point. It may look very odd though: Equestria’s only human carrying a pony through town.”

“Who’s gonna see? It’s like eleven at night, all the other ponies have gone to bed by this point.

“I-I think it’s a really cute idea…” Fluttershy finally says, barely loud enough for the others to hear. At that all eyes were on her, and she squeaked, hiding behind her mane and trying to make herself as small as possible.

“Well, alright. She is your responsibility now after all, so you do what you think is right.” Says Twilight, who was blushing slightly for some reason.

“Alright then, I’m gonna just take her and head on home: I for one have had enough of this freezing castle. I’ll see you all some other time.” Anon says, eliciting a choruses of ‘byes’ and ‘nights’ from the others. He then resolves to turn around and walk behind Starlight: she doesn’t do anything, just sits there in silence. Anon bends down, and reaches his hands under her midsection, and then lifts her up like one would a cat, and holds her firmly against his chest, her hooves sticking out and down, and a very shocked look on her face.

As embarrassing as this is, I can’t fight him, at least not while Twilight’s here. Maybe when we get outside and away from Twilight. Just bear it for now… She thought, hating the idea of being handled like this.

“Hey Twi, mind getting the door for us?” Anon asked as he made his way towards the exit with Starlight held firmly in his arms.

“Oh, uh yeah sure.” She said, shaking herself out of the trance she didn’t even realise she was in, watching as Anon carried Starlight across the room. She flew over to the doors, opening them, and then flew over to the front doors at the other end of the main hall, Anon walking as fast as he could to keep up.

“I’ll pop in tomorrow to see how you’re doing, okay? I’ll also bring your first payment with me, because I’m too tired to sort it out now.” Twilight says as she tries to use magic to open the door. When it doesn’t work, she screws her muzzle up in confusion for a second before it clicks that she’s with Anon, and uses her hooves to physically pull the doors open with the handles.

“Yeah sure. I guess I ain’t got much to do anymore, so I’ll be in all day. Oh, actually that’s a point. Could you also head in to Sugarcube Corner tomorrow at some point and inform the Cakes of the situation? They’re gonna wonder why I don’t turn up to work tomorrow. I’d also rather you do it personally than ask Pinkie to tell them.”

“I don’t see why you can’t just ask Pinkie, but sure, I’ll make it the first thing I do tomorrow.”

“Thanks. I don’t believe I need anything else. I’m just gonna run on home now, and try to think about how I’m gonna make this work. I’ll see ya tomorrow, Twi.”

“Alright. Thanks a lot for this, Anon. it means a lot to me. Have a good night.”

At that, Anon just turned towards the door once more, and started down the stairs. It was pretty cold outside, even with the trench coat and now a warm body held in his grasp, so the instant he made it down the steps, he broke out into the fastest walk he could manage, heading straight for home.

After they got a couple of blocks, Starlight thought it was time to attempt her escape. We should be far enough away from that crazy Princesses castle now. I don’t really want to do this, but I don’t see what choice I’ve got. I also don’t want to alert anyone, so I should probably keep quiet. This is such a stupid idea…

Anon was surprised when Starlight suddenly started struggling, trying to get loose. She started waving her hooves around, trying to knock Anon in some way, and trying to kick him. The position that she was in, however, left her little to no way of reaching around, and all she managed to do was make Anon slow down.

“Whoa whoa whoa, what’s gotten into you all of a sudden?!” He asked, having to tighten his grip to keep her from slipping out. “You were fine a minute ago at the castle!”

He just stood there, his grip held tight while he let her try to fight his grip. After a couple of minutes of struggling, she eventually stopped, hanging there limply, her breathing ragged. Okay, that was pointless. This… whatever he is, is far too strong. I’ve got no chance, at least while he’s holding me like this and I’ve got this stupid ring on my horn.

“That’s better. Now what was the point in that?” Anon asked, resuming his fast walk back to his house. She didn’t answer, and just hung there in his arms, which now relaxed somewhat. “I’m not gonna hurt you. Well, unless you leave me no choice, that is. All I’m gonna do is look after you cos Twilight says you’ve done some bad shit, and she wants someone to keep an eye on you cos she’s too busy with other shit to do it.”

Still no reply. “Well, you’re stuck with me for now whether you like it or not, so I guess you’re gonna have to get used to me. And I wanna find out why you did all that shit you did. I ain’t gonna judge you for it, so you might as well get it over with.”

Still nothing. Anon sighed. “Well, maybe you’ll feel a bit more talkative after you’ve had some sleep. I hope you’re okay with sleeping on the couch, cos I haven’t exactly got another bed.”

The rest of the trip was uneventful, Anon having given up trying to talk to Starlight, who just hung there in his arms the whole time.

“Well, we’re here now. Welcome home, I guess.” Anon said, removing one of his arms from around Starlight, and reaching into his pockets for his keys as they approached the front door of his house. She didn’t try anything. He slipped the keys into the door, gave them a turn and kicked the door in with his foot, revealing the nice warm inside of his house. Well, it was warm before he opened the door and let all the warm air out, that is.

He wandered in, leaving the door open, and finally dumped Starlight onto the couch. She still didn’t do anything. He then went back to the door, removing the keys and shutting it, shivering in the process.

“You’re pretty heavy, you know. My arms are fucking killing me after that walk.” Anon stated as he dumped his coat on a hook next to the door and slipped his shoes off. He still didn’t get a reply, not that he expected one. “You know, talking to you is like talking to a brick wall. Can you even talk?” He walked in to the living room and looked at Starlight with a raised eyebrow. She nodded, but said nothing.

“Well, I guess that’s a start.” Anon collapsed onto his armchair with a groan. Starlight just sat there and looked around at Anon’s living room. “Yeah, it ain’t much, and I ain’t got much in the way of ornaments and shit, but its home. For you now, too I suppose.”

After a minute or so of nothing being said, Anon finally started. “Alright then. Seeing as you’re gonna be staying with me under my roof, I got a few ‘ground rules’ to lay out. I’ve never had anyone to look after in my house before, so this’ll be a new experience for the both of us, so these rules are more just common sense things. Firstly, don’t wreck my shit. Bit obvious as I said, but I may as well say it, in case you’re tempted. I’ll be hella pissed if you do. Second, I’ll treat you nice if you treat me nice. If you start being a bitch, then I ain’t gonna be happy about it. When I have my meals, I’ll cook you some of whatever I have, I guess. Unless it’s meat that is. I’ll just do you like a salad or something if that’s the case.”

Starlight just looked at Anon with a neutral expression on her face as he said his piece.

“Also, don’t try to take your ring on your horn off. You’re not allowed to do magic in my house. If you do try I’ll also be pissed cos it means you ain’t taking any of the stuff I’m saying seriously. What else is there…” He thought aloud.

“Oh yeah, going out. You can’t leave my house unless you’re coming with me somewhere. And if I go out anywhere you’re gonna come with me. I’m not sure how that’s gonna work yet though…” He trailed off.

“Oh wow, am I retarded, can’t believe I forgot this.” He said to himself as he facepalmed, but still loud enough that Starlight heard. “My name’s Anon, by the way. Nice to meet you I suppose.” He said, raising his hand towards her as if he was going to shake her hand, if she had one. “Dunno why I’m doing this, really.” He looked at his hand as he lowered it. “Must be the cold and tiredness going to my head.” He muttered.

“Uhh, I suppose I’ll tell you a bit about myself. One, I’m a bit of a retard at times, although who isn’t, heh, not funny.” He trailed off again, ashamed of his stupid joke. “Two, I very much enjoy reading, and I enjoy my privacy while reading (and when not). So please don’t interrupt me if I’m reading.” He indicated to a relatively large bookcase against one wall as he said that, the thing pretty full with books.

“I’m, uh, not the best cook to be honest, but I get by. I enjoy sports like Skiing, ten-pin bowling, golf, not that you probably know what that is. Never really cared about football or soccer to be honest, not that you probably know what those are either…” Starlight just continued to sit there, listening to Anon’s rambling.

“Well, I guess you’ll get to find out more about me in time. Same with me for you. I’m just waffling here, aren’t I?” Starlight nodded. “Well, it’s another thing you know about me now I guess.”

A bit of an awkward silence followed. After a few minutes, Anon took a glance at the clock on the wall, which read eleven thirty.

“It’s half eleven. Fuck am I tired. You can just sleep there on the couch for tonight, and I’ll go fetch a blanket for you. I’ll sort out something a bit better tomorrow. I’m gonna head up for bed now.”

Starlight didn’t say anything, unsurprisingly.

“Alrighty then. Gimme a sec.” He turned and walked out and up the stairs. A minute later and he came back down holding a quilt under his arm, which he then placed down next to her on the couch.

“There you go. I have no idea what time I’m gonna be up tomorrow, so if you’re up before me just wait. Oh, and if you need to go to the toilet, it’s up the stairs, first door on the left.”

“That’s everything I think. Have a good sleep and such.” He finally said, making his way up the stairs to bed. It’s gonna be a weird few days… At least.