(Royal Containment Center)

Located - In the ground levels of the Royal Palace

10 Days before events of NM

White polished hooves trended down the equally sparkly white marble floor, clicking against the ground with great purpose as she rounded a corner passing by pony's wearing white lab coats that stood off to the side giving her room, bowing respectively as she past. Celestia gave them all a courtesy smile that dimmed as she came near her destination.

She reached a point where a checkpoint was set up with one security gate that extended to the walls with a red siren centered overhead the main gate. On Celestia's left side next to the guarded gate was a 10 foot wide glass window that stretched out to both sides of the gates, dividing it perfectly giving the pony behind it an eagles eye of the hallway. A unicorn mare wearing a security uniform sat behind a main console desk with lights that flashed on the motherboard periodically, she nodded her head to the Princess as she wordlessly pressed the button to the main gates allowing her to pass the checkpoint. Celestia gave her appreciation to the mare as she pushed through the gate as a magic detectors installed in the gates mainframe whirred to life scanning her over, checking to find any abnormalities. It beeped in the clear as she fully entered the other side which she hardly heard as she continued down her path.

The walls became more narrower as she trotted towards a one-way corridor bypassing doors on both sides with nothing but numbers marking their exterior. As she passed she could see shadows moving underneath the door as the individuals behind them tried peaking at who was passing by their rooms.

Near one of the doors a pink mare wearing lab coat was outside taking notes as she scribbled on the parchment in deep concentration mumbling under her breath as her horn worked it's way onto the pages as she mumbled under her breath, "...Has been less aggressive...Magic bursts have not been reported...Music of Harm-"

"Doctor Light." Celestia gently interrupted her, blinking in surprise the pink mare turned around to face the alicorn, "Oh Princess!" She bowed respectfully, "I've been expecting you."

She adjusted her glasses while her clipboard hovered out in front of her which Celestia took immediately, "How's he been doing lately?" She asked as she skimmed over the pages of what looked like to be doctors notes as well as Light's own inputs on the corners of the pages, the chicken scratches made it hard to decipher but she managed , "We went to get a fully checkup this year and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary with some year round bean and dental cleaning," She smiled with joy as she explained, "he's been well-behaved when we took off his Ring Prohibitor for his annual horn cleaning and sharpening."

Celestia immediately looked up from the board with a frown, "Why didn't you warn myself beforehoof you were going to remove his Prohibitor?" Doctor Light smiled cracked as she saw her not sharing the excitement, "W-well as you may have read in my notes that during this last year he showed signs of improvement over his psychosis and it may be the right time to take the next step. This was to be the first sign of trust of me giving him free range, I had guards posted inside surveilling him as the physician cleaned him off."

Celestia gazed at Light intensely that made the mare feel like she was under scrutiny, "Is he without his Prohibitor now?" She asked quietly.

"No Princess." Doctor Light shook her slightly sweaty head, "We put it back on after the cleanup and without complaint. He's been more passive than usual with the restraints and the extra security measures placed on him."

Celestia kept quiet as she processed this new information, "I will be expecting a full report later on tonight and a full record of his ongoing therapy sessions before any decision can be made."

The advisor nodded her head, "Of course, your highness."

Now the important stuff was out of the way, "Did he start to write anything new?"

The pink mare looked off to the side hiding her face from the curious monarch, "About that."

She turned to looked down at her majesty's golden shoes with a face red from...embarrassment? "He's been getting more into erotica these past few days and some of them are...Not the kind romance novels you would write about for study group."

It was Celestia's turn to blink in surprise at this current turnabout.

"Oh." She tried thinking about something to say but came up blank. "..How well is it?" She asked more out of curiosity than passion. The Doctor's entire face lit up like a Hearts Warming Tree as she spoke softly under her breath loud enough for her to hear. "Extremely appeasing."

The air around them became more awkward than her last checkup with her dietician. She audibly cleared her throat, "Wonderfully then, I will be going if there is anything else you needed to tell me?" She asked hurriedly to get away from that topic.

The doctor adjusted her glasses again as the heat from her face faded, "Not worth mentioning but another guard he requested to join him in the studio."

Celestia hummed interest, "Who may I ask is it?"

"A stallion named...Red Twister I believe?"

She eyes lit up in recognition, "Ah, the Pegasi who keeps staring at my flanks when he thinks I'm not looking?"

Doctor Light made another face before adding in quietly, "Yes that one."

"Hmm interesting." She said stilly while she trotted away from the once again blushing doctor.

She arrive on the last door on the left with a heavy breath she cast her magic on the knob-less door. The door clunked and clicked as parts inside unlocked from her touch and with barely a sound it swung open into darkness. The feeling in her chest tightened as she plunged herself into the dark room.

With barely any visibility she trotted in looking around with difficultly until she used her horn to light up the depressing room that was nearly as big as her bedroom without any furniture. As her light hit the walls it revealed layers of paper that covered the room all the way to the ceiling, hundreds of articles mashed together overlapping each other with the occasional red markings like a tidal wave of paper art. She remembered when it start with just one, then in a week it became ten, then a month a hundred and so on before she knew it, it became more similar to a conspiracy theorists cavern.

Or more accurately like a beautiful mind just like in a book she read around a year ago... Small etching noises came from the far corner of the room. There in the adjacent walls a small light lit the silhouette of a rather large figure with fur as black as midnight almost identically to her... She cleared her head as she trotted closer to the pony. The large pony gave no response or reaction as she came closer either too induced in their work or flat out ignoring her presence which could be the case.

"Hello there, Luci." The scribbling didn't stop as they continued to ignore her.

"I heard you've been pursing...lighter novels as of late. That's good to hear." Nothing else was said as the dark pony kept his head low as his horn barely glowed as it lit barely enough light for him to see what he was writing.

The table he was writing on extended halfway across the room per his request to allow his work to be spread out. Neatly in piles stacks of paper donned the workbench ranging from all sizes.

"You have been behaving excellently these past few weeks so I decided to grant you an outside visit to the Royal Gardens. Would you like that?" The pony's head hung low in defeat as they kept on ignoring her existence like she was nothing more than white noise.

She wouldn't be able to get an answer out of him, nothing she said ever did. It wasn't without reasons out of their control.

For once she cut all the small talk, "I won't be able to see you for a while," She said slowly as she gazed around her surroundings from the papers donning the walls that covered up everything including the small window that hasn't seen the light of day in years to the flat board that was used as his work desk which it was originally suppose to be his clothes rack.

She glanced over the other side of the room spotting his bed that was nothing more than a rollup bed that laid flatly to the ground enough for it to not even be considered a bed at all but a sleeping bag. Metal wasn't allowed in the room when he found...creative ways for it to be used.

The quill scrawled more as the pony kept on writing, her thoughts on how long he must've sat there crossed her mind and how much longer would the quill be of use before it snapped from overworking the poor feather. It didn't bother him, he had them in bulk at this point in all shapes and sizes which was to be given to him by Doctor Light when one broke. At first it worried her when he was given something sharp but after a while it seemed her fears were to be unfounded when he didn't nothing more than use them for writing material.

Holding down her nervousness she approached the sitting stallion with an appropriate distance between them not not be intrusive while boarding on hovering and a friendly gap. She looked to her left then to her right biting her lower lip trying to decide her next course of action.

"I have business will last a few weeks from, maybe a month. There's something I have to do that's going to effect a lot of ponies lives and it will be dangerous for me. I cannot give you the fully details but what I can give you is my word that when this is all over I will be doing all in my power to help you from these circumstances." She stopped to hold down her rising fear, "I-if I do not return after, Light will be in charge of your wellbeing until there's been established order."

For a split second a ruby eye made slight contact with hers and like that she blinked first.

"W-well then I'll be going." She quickly backed up to leave before she stopped. She resumed her way out before stopping again. This went on for a while like she was a broken record struggling to get back on track but something was holding her back and finally as she was touching the door she turned around with a indescribable expression, "I-" She began, before thinking about her response and with great shame she looked down at her hooves and said in a quiet voice, "Goodnight, Lucifer." And with that she quickly exited the room with the doors closing behind her as they mechanical locks tuned into place sealing it once more plunged the room into darkness.

Releasing a sigh the pony cracked his neck working out the kinks as his horn let down the floating quill as his back flexed his wings with restlessness, then he proceeded to go back into writing.

Author's Note

I'm not any good with openings, so I'm jumping right into it.

(P.S.) I'm making edits as I go, so if you spot any please do so.