Author's Note

Again, as with the previous entry, this chapter in specific has been tagged for gore, mass death, and general darkness.

Couldn't resist sharing Reponer's piece since it fit so well.

An additional aside, although the next three chapters aren't nearly as dark, I wish to put fair warning. In addition bringing to an end the meat and potatoes of the My Little Pony: The Movie sub-arc, Entry 43 will deal with some heavy themes when Anon hits rock bottom.

Entry 39

It was hard to focus on reading the map left by Piercing Gaze and that Palooka. Ponies out in the streets kept staring at me, and crowds seemed to part around me; I could practically taste their fear. Some even ran in the other direction when they saw me. At one point, a nice unicorn couple approached me, expressing concern at the sight of my broken horn and all the blood. Good ponies, them. They got out of my way pretty quick when I told them that I didn't have time to chat—that I had to save my sister and kill any mobster that got in my way.

Something prickled at the peripheral of my consciousness. There was something I felt like I should be... A thought or a feeling I ought to have felt wouldn't come. It was something I should've been concerned about, because the last time that nagging sensation had been memories suppressed by Chrysalis' geas. It didn't feel like that though. I wasn't forgetting anything; it was just that whatever my brain was trying to raise the alarm about was diminished to the point of insignificance.

About a few blocks from the warehouse marked on the map, two earth ponies—a mare and a stallion—in uniform approached from a side-street. Unlike the Royal Guard, with their shiny bronze armour, these two wore uniforms of dark blue cloth, matching peaked caps, black shades, and a pair of hoof cuffs draped over their backs. They even had little belts with batons on them. On their shoulders and the front of their hats, there was an insignia. These were the fine ponies in blue of the Manehattan P.D.

The mare of the pair lowered herself down to my level as she got closer to me. "Hey there, kiddo," she said in a soft voice. "We had several ponies approach us about a hurt filly walkin' around covered in blood." I was pretty sure that was an exaggeration on the part of whichever ponies called on the police; I'd wiped off most of my own blood from my face, and the blood smeared into my jacket wasn't that bad. "You look like you've been in an accident, and that horn looks like it really hurts; why don't you come with us and get that looked at?"

My eyes flicked over the name tag on her button-up shirt. Copper Top, eh? With a mane like that, I could see why. "There's no need, officer," I said in that emotionless calm I'd slipped into earlier. "The horn's not real, only some of the blood is mine, and I'm kinda in a rush." I glanced at her partner, who seemed to be trying to flank me—maybe corral me against the wall of the building beside us. "The Blackwing cartel has foalnapped my big sister and her friend, so now I'm going to destroy them. They were even so kind as to leave me an invitation."

The second cop—kinda reminded me of that Thunderlane dude I'd seen in Ponyville, but his name tag read 'Coal Dust'—winced when I mentioned the cartel. "Hey, uh, Copper?" he said, seeming to sweat a bit. "Maybe we should pretend we never saw this..."

Oh? Have I just found one of the crooked cops? I grit my teeth slightly, but decided against violence. I ought to do the police a favour, but no... That's murder, not justice. If he'd been one of the bastards Raging Storm bribed with Emeralds body, it'd be a different matter.

Copper Top ignored her partner, instead giving me a serious look. "That's a very serious accusation, Missy," she said, placing one hoof on my shoulder. To my utter bewilderment, I didn't even flinch. There was a momentary bubble of rage and frustration, but then... nothing. "If somepony's been foalnapped, professionals should investigate it... Let's go down to the station and we can get your statement."

Coal stepped between us, taking his partner back several steps. "Seriously, Copper," he said. "The Blackwings pay good bits for us to look the other way, and this filly—" He pointed at me. "—has the eyes of a killer. We want nothing to do with whatever this is."

The eyes of a killer, huh? Since when has that been a thing I had? I wondered, watching as the two quietly argued between themselves. Maybe it's just a side effect of this tranquil fury, or my determination, because nobody said that of me when I shot down that airship.

In the end, I decided to step around the pair while they argued. "You should listen to your crooked partner, Ms. Top," I said in a sing-song voice. "You sound like a good pony, and normally I'd appreciate you wanting to do the right thing. That said, if you get in my way, you will not enjoy what happens next."

The mare cried out, "That's it, I'm taking you in!" before trying to lunge at me. I was quicker on the draw, however, and my left hoof shot to one of the pouches on the inside of my right foreleg. A torrent of high-pressure water filled the air between us, quickly slamming into the officer and her partner. They both slammed into the wall behind them hard. Once I cut off the spell, they both dropped to the sidewalk, their outlines remaining on the wall from where my spell had blasted away any grime.

Her sunglasses gone, Copper Top looked up at me in wide-eyed terror. "But... your horn... you said it was fake!" she whimpered as she struggled to figure out what happened. "What are you?"

That was not a question I expected. I smiled down at her and said, "I am a force of nature," was my response. "The only thing that you gotta know is that I will do what it takes to get Starlight back, whatever it may be." My eyes flicked to her partner. "Luckily, I recognise your partner's just doing what it takes to get by and go home each night to those who love him..."

As I started walking away, I pulled out the knife I'd tucked into my jacket. "If he'd been one of the dirty cops Raging Storm pimped his daughter out to, that'd be a different matter," I said, waving the knife as I walked. As I tucked it away once more, I added, "Ask the Mareiott hotel what happened in the hallway to one of the mobsters he did that for."

There was no more reason to stay there, so I started moving back along the path detailed on the map. It felt like there was a pressure behind my eyes for a moment, and then that empty feeling returned to my stomach. I found it hard to swallow until the feeling passed. The fuck was that?

'Nobody would blame you if you'd purged that dirty cop,' my reflection whispered at me as we passed a shop's display window. Instead of Chrysalis, it was the mane/coat-swapped version of my true form that I saw. 'By being on the take, he's complicit in everything he did to Emerald—and you by proxy.'

"I'm okay with putting down any of the rabid dogs that get in my way, Hunger," I said out loud to my distorted reflection. I'd stopped caring what anypony thought long ago. "Killing that cop, though, wouldn't have been just, or even revenge. It would've just been murder."

That seemed to staunch Hunger's commentary for a time. It wouldn't be for another block until it appeared again. This time it was wearing the guise of Chrysalis, just hanging there in the mist created by a leaking fire hydrant. 'You must admit, though,' she crooned. 'It felt good to give in to that desire, didn't it? It felt liberating to put down that wretched pony that dared insinuate you should take him into your bed...

A lump formed in my throat, and in the end, I didn't answer her. What was I supposed to say? She wasn't wrong, I admitted to myself, feeling quite the chill at the admission. The thirst for revenge had been aroused by what I'd done, but it could hardly be said to even close to being slaked. If anything, the hunger had only grown, eating away at my control.

I can't give into this bloodlust and succumb to wanton murder... I can't lose sight of why I crossed the line which cannot be uncrossed.

~ 39 ~

"You really reckon the brat'll come, Joe?" one of the mooks outside the warehouse door asked the other. "She made herself disappear for two years the last time she got out from under the boss's hoof, right? No way she's gonna come crawling back."

The other mook, Joe whatever, gave the first this look. "You didn't hear the blue one when the boss was torturin' her for info, Kid," he muttered with a shiver. He pressed himself against the closed warehouse door—one of those segmented vertical ones on a track—to put himself fully in the shadow of the building. "She seemed to think little Emerald looks at the one those idiots almost blew up earlier as family. It didn't take her long to break completely, either. Not long after, she started insisting the kid was going to buck us up if we touched the purple one."

"She's what, eight?" the first jeered. "Even if she's an earth pony, at her age? I could take her with both wings tied behind my back."

From atop a pile of large shipping crates beside the pair, I frowned down at the pair as they argued. The first mook was a pegasus, maybe five years older than Ebony. Couldn't have been in the gang more than a few months by reckoning. He definitely wasn't in any of the unfortunate memories of the sexual abuse that I'd unfortunately inherited. He doesn't even have his mark yet; no need for him to die.

Joe—Pretty Joe—on the other hand... that unicorn's face I did recognise. Despite his somewhat effeminate face, well-kept pink mane, and his silky blue coat, he was one of the repeat offenders that took advantage of Emerald. He always lured her into a false sense of security, made her feel safe, and then struck. Hunger cheered in my ears when I resolved to destroy him to send a message to the newbie.

Quietly, I pulled the knife from my jacket and then activated the revised amplification spell—Berserker. It only had about fifteen minutes before the spell gave out, but I proudly—arrogantly, even—believed that was all I'd need. With the shock and awe of Trench Gun, I hoped to break the spirits and force most of them to break ranks. Even if Hunger was cheering on indulging the bloodlust, I wasn't going to kill more than I had to.

"If Pretty Joe here wasn't about to die, I'd tell you to listen to him," I called out, kicking off the side of the box with such force that I shot at them like a rocket. I barely had the reflexes to do anything at this speed, but as I shot over Joe, I lashed out with the knife. Maybe it was just the speed of the attack, or my amplified strength, but the steel blade carved through his horn like butter and scored a deep trench in the bridge of his muzzle. I hit the ground between them, carving a trench in the pavement as I slammed into the one called Kid, knocking his legs out from under him.

Even as what just happened kicked in for Joe, and he screamed out in pain, I was on the Kid in a heartbeat. I quickly shifted the knife from one hoof to the other, ensuring I could easily access the spells on my other leg, before pressing the blade to his throat. "Instead," I continued, watching as the dehorned unicorn brought one of his forehooves up to his muzzle to stem the bleeding from the gash I'd carved in his pretty face. "I want you to watch closely."

With my free hoof, I reached up and triggered the plasma bolt spell. The capsule of superheated air shot out from in front of my broken false horn, and slammed into his other front leg, just below his withers, burning cleanly through the meat and bone before dissipating. With the leg no longer attached, the stallion collapsed to the concrete, his screaming only getting louder.

Any struggling from the Kid quickly stopped at the sight of his companion's dismemberment. I could feel the fear and revulsion wash over him as the smell of burnt flesh and fur reached his nose. "Here's what's gonna happen, Kid," I said in a calm voice. "I'm going to let you up so that I can paint the walls with that bastard's brains for what he did to Emerald Flicker." I removed the blade from his neck, noticing a thin line of red welling in his fur. "You are going to fly to the Royal Guard base and turn yourself in. Tell them exactly where I—Anonymous Flicker—am, and tell them to send medics, a clean-up crew, and body bags."

As I stepped off of him and jammed the knife into the pavement in front of his face, the scent of excrement reached my nose. I didn't even look at him as I moved back over to Pretty Joe. Just as I lifted a hoof to grab him by his long silky mane, I heard Hunger whisper to me. 'Take the horn; you'll need it to fulfil our deal.' I froze for a moment, but slowly reached over to where his horn had fallen and stuffed it into the pocket with the map.

I didn't hear or see the kid take off, but I didn't care. I seized Joe by his head, backed up a bit, and then ran full-force at the brick wall. At the last minute, I effortlessly lifted his head and body up in front of me. I'd hoped that at least some of the resultant force amplification from the spell would've transferred over to his body, but the wall was sturdier than I expected. Pretty Joe had more give than the wall did.

I'm sure I was a terrifying sight when I burst through the wall beside the door, covered in a mixture of Joe, his blood, and broken bricks. Although it was a big warehouse on the outside, it appeared to be divvied up into different sections, with walls put in. The area I burst into had a sign hanging declaring it shipping and receiving, as if this were just some legitimate shipping business. Too bad a near dozen mobster-types sitting around a metal folding table playing cards and smoking cigars ruined that impression.

Speaking of those mobster types, they were all frozen, staring at my gore-streaked form. "What the buck," one wiseguy muttered, his cigar dropping from his mouth and rolling across the table. Not every day you have a tiny blood-soaked foal burst through a concrete wall like the Kool-aid Man, after all. Plus, all the screaming outside probably didn't help.

"Oh hiya, boys," I said, once again slipping into my Pinkie Pie imitation. Even as I spoke, my eyes were sweeping across the crowd and my hoof wandered up to the Trench Gun spell. If any of them were one of Emerald's abusers, well... they were top choice for making an example. Surprisingly three of them were at the table. "You wouldn't happen to know where your boss is keeping my sister and her friend, would you?"

Maybe it was because of how ludicrous the situation was, but everyone at the table started laughing. It started out as a nervous titter from one of them. It then evolved into anxiety laughter and the a few of them followed suit. I swear, it's like these guys aren't talking me seriously.

"Ahem, guys?" I said again louder. "I only really wanna kill three of you, but if you don't tell me something useful, I'm willing to see if somepony in the next room has a better answer."

The room fell silent as what had actually just happened began to set in. I was wearing one of their compatriots, and was threatening to do that or worse to them. One of the ones who didn't seem to take me as a threat, the one who'd dropped his cigar, rose to his hooves and shouted, "What are ya waitin' for? Get—"

My patience slipped, and I discharged the spell into the head of the one who'd gotten up. Because there was no bang of gunpowder propelling the obsidian pellets, the only sound made was the sickening squelchy crunching sound as the front half of the stallion's face all but vanished in a mist of blood, bone, teeth, and obsidian fragments. Even then, it took him slumping to the table with a meaty thump, presumably drowning in his own blood before everyone shut it.

"Now," I announced, resuming that sickeningly cheerful voice, "Exactly one of you dumb motherfuckers is going to speak at a time." I glanced at one of the other two ponies I'd marked for death. "The only words outta your fuckin' mouths better be an answer, 'Yes sir,' or 'No sir.' Do I make myself clear?"

If any of them were confused by a little filly pretty much demanding at gunpoint that they call her sir, they were smart enough to keep their fuckin' traps shut. After seeing me turn that poor fucker's face into bloody pulp, it was quite clear to them that I was not fucking around. In unison, eight stallions all cried out "Yes sir!"

'I'm enjoying this sadism of yours,' Hunger whispered. It took me a moment to find her reflection this time around. Of course it'd be in the pool of blood spreading across the table. 'Aren't you glad you decided to enjoy yourself?'

"I'm not doing this because I like it, Hunger," I grumbled aloud without thinking. "If Raging Storm had just left well enough alone these bastards needn't die at all." Several eyebrows shot up and I could swear one of them mouthed something about me being crazy to the others. "So, in order... What's the layout of this place, where is Raging Storm keeping Starlight Glimmer and Trixie, and how many ponies are between me and the boss?"

I sat on my haunches, keeping my hooves on the spells in my sleeve. To those guys, it probably looked like I was crossing my forelegs in a defiant posture. I pointed to one guy, the biggest of the group who looked like he could've been ex-guard. "Sir, the warehouse is divided into four parts. Shipping and receiving, storage, studios, and the treasury. Each section is soundproofed, but you coming through that wall might've caught some attention, regardless," he said. "The boss's office is the old foreman's office, located in the treasury. That's where they'll be."

One of the idiots, one of the others, the ones not involved in Emerald's abuse hopped up and shouted, "Buckin' turncoat!"

In response to his outburst, I took the opportunity to execute another of the foal molesters. This one caught an ice-spike through the throat... punching clear through. "You've got one more outburst like that before all of you chance my wrath. As for that last pony I've got my eye on, well... It's all up to them whether you get to live longer or not, so enjoy your time, and then suffer for your crime against Emerald."

Everyone looked to the one who'd begun really sweating, and I heard one guy whisper, "Dude, what the buck did the three of you guys do to the boss's stepdaughter that you're getting killed over it?"

I ignored the whispered conversation and looked back to Mr. Helpful. "Continue."

"There might be about twelve total, seven in the studio and five the treasury," he answered, giving a dark look to the last rapist standing. "Storage's empty." His gaze returned to me. "I know what them boys, the other five in the treasury, and the boss did to that filly..." Could he tell that I'm...? With a shake of his head, he finished his thought, "Killin' them won't take back what they did to Emerald or them other fillies, you know."

I smiled at the stallion, although I could feel some of my sorrow bubbling up. "Maybe not," I admitted with a sigh. Even though hearing that Emerald wasn't Storm's only victim only solidified in my mind that he needed to die, he was right. "But it'll make me feel better about all this." I looked at the other ponies in the room. "Any of you—except you—who wants to leave, go now. Your best bet is to turn yourselves in to the Royal Guard, since they're gonna be cleanin' up what's left of Storm's mess when I'm done here. Help'em weed out the dirty cops in the P.D."

Mr. Helpful looked at the other goons at the table, and then back to me. With a nod of his head, he walked over to the vertical door. "C'mon, you guys," he said, raising the door by pulling the chain. "Ain't nothin' here we want any more part of."

I watched with interest as several of the other stallions took turns slugging the soon to be dead meat still seated at the table. Even the big guy took a moment to go back and spit on him. Then, when the door rolled shut behind the group, I stepped up to the table, to get a better look at him. He was on the older side, maybe mid sixties, although still plenty young by pony standards. Given that he was about to die for what he'd done, I didn't even really feel like paying attention to his colouring.

"Currently, you may be feeling sad or angry," I said in a soft voice... In my ears, it almost sounded like too much like Fluttershy, but she would never be this cruel. Am I starting to break or... what? "Honestly, darling, the only one you have to blame for any of this is yourself." I winced, but kept going. "Did ya really believe nopony would come lookin' for revenge?"

What the fuck...? "What the buck, kid?" the guy asked, his voice trembling slightly. "Fuck's going on with your voice?"

'Never you mind that too much,' Hunger whispered. 'That's just Harmony trying to dissuade you.' I couldn't exactly sense Hunger's emotions, but that sounded at least in part like a lie.

"Do you wanna know who... what I am, and why I'm killing you when my only problem here should be Raging Storm?" I asked, gesturing over my shoulder to the bloody hole in the wall left by not-so-Pretty Joe. "Why I killed Palooka, Joe, and those two fuckers... why it matters to me?" I tapped the side of my head and sneered at him. "What Storm, you, and all them other fuckers did to Emerald Flicker killed her desire to live... She lost hope... But Harmony? That bitch took that poor withdrawn filly and put her in storage until she had need of a pawn...

"She fucked up though. Emerald was supposed to stay asleep... but I kept seeing and feeling things... And then this fucking war forced us here, and woke Emerald up!" I screamed, tears spilling from my eyes. "I know... I felt what every one of you monsters did to her..." Before I knew what I was doing, a plasma bolt had burned through the stallion's right ear. "Including every single time you sodomised her."

I was gonna make his death quick, but instead, my anger flared once again. I spun on my hooves and bucked the table. He barely had time to scream before his upper half was separated from his lower half. His scream quickly died off as the top of him rode atop the table until it crashed into some boxes behind him, his trachea completely severed from his lungs. He stared down at the rest of his body, even as he began to suffocate.

"I don't know how damnation and the afterlife works for you ponies, but I'm sure whatever's in store isn't enough for monsters like you," I said, turning away. Draped over a nearby box was a canvas shipping tarp. As I made my way over to the doorway leading into storage, I grabbed the tarp and started wiping some of the blood from my face and glasses. Most of it came away red, but the spots where my tears had rolled down my face left streaks of black.

~ 39 ~

This was turning out to be a really awful day for Starlight Glimmer. It'd been hard finding out that Trixie hadn't shown up at the 12th Regiment Ground Station, nor returned to the hotel. Even worse was sitting in with Emerald Flicker while she told Prince Blueblood everything that poor child had been through. Nothing had prepared her, however, for being ambushed in the streets and rendered unconscious.

Her head was killing her, and her body was sore from being in an unnatural position for too long. It didn't help that her eyes were fighting against opening. With a groan, she attempted to cast a Pick-Me-Up charm—a spell intended to give the caster a little jolt to wake up a little bit quicker. That groan turned to a wince as the spell-form collapsed as it reached her horn.

"Starlight, are you okay?" That was Trixie's voice, but it sounded like she was right beside her. That couldn't have been the case though. Anon seemed convinced that Trixie had been foalnapped by Raging Storm and his Blackwing cartel. "Trixie needs you to stay calm..."

Oh, she thought, remembering the explosion, and Anon's insistence that somepony had been watching them when they first showed up at the base. Forcing an eye open, she found she was suspended by her forelimbs in a small office, chains and manacles holding her up. To her side, with a magic limiter over her horn, hung Trixie. Of what she could see of her friend, it looked as though she'd been given a black eye and a split lip. There were also one or two small, circular burns on the inside of her haunches. "We're hostages," she asked in a hoarse voice, "aren't we?"

As she looked around the room, she saw an ornate oak desk. From the look of the open books spread across the surface, they were all various ledgers. On the side of the desk opposite of her, she saw a high-back chair upholstered in a luxurious red velvet, its back facing her. A small ribbon of smoke began to rise from the other side, and the reek of tobacco reached her nose not long after.

"Too right you are," came a deep stallion's voice dripping with a Canterlot accent, although it sounded... forced—not quite as smooth as Rarity's affectation. Trixie whimpered at the sound of his voice. The chair slowly began to turn, revealing none other than Raging Storm, just as he'd appeared in the photograph. His piercing blue eyes locked on her as he lounged against one of the plush arms of the chair. From the corner of his mouth hung a lit cigarette. "Welcome to my office, Ms. Glimmer. Fancy a smoke?"

Starlight shook her head. "I would say it was a pleasure to meet you, Raging Storm," she said, trying to keep her worry out of her voice. Unfortunately, she couldn't keep what Anon had said out of her head—that she and Trixie would be made to disappear once their use as bait was at an end. To cover that worry, she used defiance. "That would be a lie, though. Your accent isn't quite what I expected, but it can't hide what you really are."

"Oh?" He barked with laughter. "I suppose ya thought I'd be talkin' more like the resta my fellow Manehattanites," he said, dropping the accent for a moment. Taking a big puff of his cigarette, he let out a sigh. When next he spoke, the faux-Canterlot poshness returned. "I find you Canterlot types have an easier time relating when I choose to affect their form of parlance. Plus, desperate young mares do so love it."

His gaze became almost predatory as he looked her up and down. She couldn't quite fight off a shiver, as it felt as though he were molesting her with his eyes. "We already had Emerald tell everything to the Royal Guard," she said, mustering up as much defiance as she could and putting it behind her voice. "You're better off just letting us go."

"Trixie is a national heroine!" Trixie quickly added. "Trixie knows very important ponies!"

"Why would I want to let you go?" he once again responded with a cruel laugh. Using the hoof he wasn't leaning on, he grabbed his cigarette and sat it in an ash tray atop the desk. He even leaned forward with a mocking sneer. "Soon, Emerald, or Anon, or whatever she's calling herself, is going to come crawling through that door, begging me not to hurt you like the note said... But when she gets here? I'm going make her watch as I kill you both, and then all traces of that filly's hope will be snuffed out once and for all."

Starlight's eyes widened and a sickening sensation began to fill her gullet. Even as there was a small rumble elsewhere in the building—complete with Raging Storm muttering something about incompetents—it dawned on her exactly what he had set into motion. It made her sick beyond all description, but more than that, it made her sad.

The young pony known as Anonymous had only been in Starlight's life for just under two months, but in that time, she thought she'd developed a good idea of what went on in her head. Although Anon could be kind, mischievous, chivalrous and very bright, she was so very, very hurt inside. Not only had she been forced to bury her own mother and abandon her sisters, she'd had to do things she wasn't proud of in order to get by. Those scars didn't just vanish when Harmony popped her soul into Emerald's body to give her a second chance.

It'd been hard for Anon to be willing to let anypony in, and in spite of that, Starlight had made enough of an impression in order for her to be put into the role of big sister. Not long after, she'd even accepted Twilight as her caregiver and guardian. It made sense to her that she couldn't bring herself to call Twilight her mother, but it was still an amazing thing to Starlight. The little green earth pony had risen up from the ashes of her old life and acquired a found family of her own.

More than that, though, Anon was a protector. She'd stood up to bullies, thugs, a maddened changeling queen, and even an invading army—all of them threats to innocents. Starlight knew this stemmed from her feelings of helplessness regarding what happened to her mother, and not being able to do more for her sisters, a desire to make sure that nobody had to go through what she had—to feel the sort of loss she had. Not even herself.

Now here was Raging Storm threatening to tear her found family apart... This was the stallion who'd abused her body's original owner... He was a pony so analogous to the one that killed Anon's mother that Starlight worried she was projecting her own sire-hatred onto Storm. She had every reason to believe Anon might try to kill him if they ever met, and here he'd engineered this... she didn't want to use the term fated meeting, but it was the only one that really fit... He'd engineered this fated meeting without ever knowing just how badly it would end for him.

More than that though, she worried what it would do to Anon. So far as Starlight knew, until the other day, Anon had never killed another sapient... She wasn't a soldier, and wasn't trained or prepped to cope with it, and then in the span of hours, she'd killed over thirty. Sure, she had been able to rationalize those ones protecting others... Storm, and anypony who got between her and him, however... An irrational part of her worried if Anon would even be the same after this?

"You don't get it, do you?" Starlight finally said when the room shook once more. "Letting us go is the only thing that might keep you alive." Her voice shook and she looked away. "She might still have enough control to not seriously hurt anypony else, but you?"

Raging Storm snorted, picking up his cigarette and hopped out of his chair. He walked over to a window and pulled up the blinds. There were three burly earth ponies, a pegasus, and a unicorn all lounging around drinking canned beverages, sitting atop boxes labelled 'Treasure', glancing at something out of sight occasionally. "You're cracked if you think one little filly is getting through even the two guarding the front, never mind the other sixteen ponies between the front and those five, girly," he scoffed, slipping into his Manehattan accent as he lowered the blinds again. "Those five especially are gonna be hard for her to face. They got a special history with her."

Trixie paled, seemingly having clued in to Starlight's point. "Trixie would like to point out," she interjected, "that Anon is a very talented rune mage."

The building shook a third time, this time hard enough to rattle the little office's windows and light fixtures. There was a cry of "What the buck?" That was quickly followed by a scream and something hitting the window. The blinds were just parted enough to see that she could see that it was blood. Screams and meaty squelching sounds filled the air. "What the buck are you!?"

"I don't pity you, Raging Storm," Starlight said, shaking her head as tears began to fill her eyes. "Anon can be a really sweet girl, but she was fraying at the mind before we got to Manehattan. Everything you've done has likely created the perfect state of mind for her to forget her inhibitions... You created a monster, and I hope you are ready to face the consequences... I just pray we're both wrong..."

When the sounds of carnage ended, Starlight's ears fell. She was already bracing herself for what she might see when the door opened. What her ears had just borne witness to told her all she needed to know about what came next. Just as I sealed my fate going against Twilight, so too has he signed his own death warrant.

Still, a pony could only prepare themselves for so many things. After all, preparations were often dependent on known variables or likely outcomes. Completely unforeseen things that defied all logic or reason were outside the realm of preparation. Just as one couldn't possibly prepare for Pinkie and her Pinkieness, a pony couldn't expect part of the ceiling to explode inward, or ready themselves for the sight of a small, blood-soaked pony to drop through said hole. That small pony following up with a twisted imitation of Pinkie Pie's cheer? Straight out of left field.

"Hi," the tiny harbinger of death exclaimed, as she stood herself up. She looked around the room, nodding as she noticed Starlight and Trixie, before looking up at Raging Storm. It was hard to tell, with all the blood, but she was definitely wearing her jacket. "So you're the dumb motherfucker who thought he could just take what didn't belong to him? The one who took Emerald Breeze's life? The disgusting monster that thought he could just take Emerald Flicker's innocence and whore her out to his stooges once Breeze was out of the way? That's you, huh?"

What startled Starlight most wasn't the blood or the manic look about Anon; it was how sickly she looked—how wrong she looked. Patches of mulberry-dyed coat still showed through all the blood, but much of it was obscured by the tar-like substance streaming from the corners of Anon's mouth, eyes, and her nostrils. She didn't need to be an empath to feel the sheer hate boiling off that liquid. It also helped little that the black liquid had seemingly stained the whites of her eyes pitch black.

Raging Storm seemed to care very little for significance of the literal, living red flag standing in front of him. He marched up to Anonymous, and threw a solid back-hoof slap that would have laid out a normal foal her size. The blow didn't even budge the filly, and she didn't even blink when he screamed in her face, "I will not take this insolence in my domain. I will not let you destroy everything I've built."

Nonplussed, Anon grabbed him by his still-outstretched forelimb. Seemingly nothing happened for a moment, and then a cracking sound rang out in the small office. From her vantage point, Starlight could just make out the fact that the midpoint of his limb looked unnaturally compressed, and was slowly bending sideways. "That's what things like you and him do, though, isn't it?" Anon said, never losing that manic cheer in her voice, even as Storm screamed over his broken limb. "You take and you take and you take! When that's not enough, you try and take one of the only good things in my life and use her as a bargaining chip, trying to get poor Emerald back, because you missed using the daughter of the mare who thought she could trust you as a fuckpuppet!"

She hurled him across the room, destroying the desk and sending pages of the ledgers flying every which way. Starlight barely caught the movement of Anon's hoof as her gaze darted over in her direction for a moment. Then, there was a clink above her as the chain holding her up shattered, followed by another, sending both Starlight and Trixie sprawling on the floor.

"Unfortunately for you, Raging Storm, that isn't gonna happen! You're never again gonna touch a hair on Emerald's head, and in time, I'll make sure my little sister can live a life outside your shadow." With a loud crack, a shard of ice pinned the stallion's wing to the wall he'd come to rest against. "Your sins are so beyond the pale that I'm not even gonna grant you the satisfaction of some farcical trial." Another shard of ice blew out one of the joints in his back leg. "Your terror is so, so sweet, and I'm gonna enjoy finding out just how much you can take until you beg for the sweet release of—"

"Anon, stop!" Starlight pleaded, reaching one shackled hoof out toward the insensate filly, who had begun to slowly approach the stallion. "Put him down if you must, but don't torture him... Don't become a monster like him."

That made Anon freeze. Starlight watched as Anon started backing up, and then the filly's ears started swivelling every which way. After a moment, Anon's gaze snapped to some sort of metal plaque that had fallen from the wall at some point during her rampage. "You sure?" the filly whispered, sighing after a moment. "Ruin my fun," she muttered returning her gaze to the stallion. "Good news! Hunger and Big Sis over there agree! Me pulling the legs off a spider contributes absolutely nothing to this situation."

Starlight wiped her brow. Thank Celestia. Now it was just a matter of calming Anon down enough that she'd call off this raging rampage of revenge just long enough for her to scan the filly and find out why she seemed to be leaking liquid hate. That died in her throat before ever reaching her mouth when she saw Anon pull something out of her jacket pocket.

"So what do I gotta do?" she asked, holding a pony's severed horn up in front of her face, as though she were examining it. "Shit, I can do that?" Taking a deep breath, Anon took off her glasses, tossed them over to where Starlight and Trixie fell. To Starlight's surprise, a blue corona started to form around the horn, although it seemed tinged with the same blackness leaking from her eyes.

Anon's mouth opened as her eyes began to glow a sickly green. Raging Storm once again began to scream, and when Starlight looked back to him, she nearly threw up. He seemed to be disintegrating in front of her very eyes. First, it was just his skin flaking away into bits of ash, which seemed drawn into Anon's glowing maw. Then, entire chunks of flesh burned away, leaving only bone.

The worst part was that even once Storm's flesh had all disintegrated, he still was not done screaming. When even the bone flaked away, sucked into the hungry void seemingly channelled through the filly, she could just make out the pale, wispy shape of a pony. That wispy shape tried in vain to grasp at anything to keep it from being drawn in, even as similar ashes seemed to flow into the room through the hole in the roof.

When ash stopped flowing in from elsewhere, the blood and tar flaked away from her body, turning into yet more fuel for whatever macabre magic they were bearing witness to. Even the false horn burned away on her forehead, followed by the jacket, and all the medallions in its sleeves. Finally, green returned to the filly's coat as rivulets of purple defied gravity by running up her body and into her mouth. But for the changes to her mane, no trace of the last few days remained on her body. Finally, the horn seated upon her hoof exploded into tiny splinters, falling to the ground.

The light faded from Anon's eyes, and no longer did her open mouth glow. Like a puppet severed from its strings, she crumpled to the floor. A pillar of blue-green light shot up from the filly, bursting through the ceiling, as well as the ceiling apparently above that. The windows of the room exploded outwards, and a surge of magic tore the shackles and magic inhibitors from Starlight and Trixie. Then, when the light cleared, all was still.

She could scarcely believe what she had witnessed. Starlight couldn't even fathom what had happened. Did she just... did she just eat his soul? The limp filly began to sob suddenly. These were not the sobs of someone who had just killed several beings, or even the cries typical of Anon. It was the quiet plaintive whimpers of a scared foal. Oh no... Emerald?

"I didn't mean to," she cried. "I didn't mean to come out Anon!"

Starlight, now free of her bindings, moved to join Emerald. "Emerald, what..."

Emerald reached her hooves out and seized Starlight by one of her forelegs. "She made me promise," she blathered, smearing tears and mucus into the older pony's leg. "She said not to try and take control until she said it was okay... but I'm here... I'm awake... I broke my promise and now she's gone..." There was terror in her eyes when she looked up at Starlight. "The room's still there, but I can't feel her at all!"

~ 39 ~

I found myself lying in a massive, poorly lit stone chamber. My first thought was that this was some sort of cave nexus. After all, it seemed as though there were several small openings dotting the irregular walls. But for the massive outcropping of black rock in the centre of the room—it was almost like a maple leaf or mutated palm frond in shape—and some barely glowing green pods at the highest point on the ceiling, I'd have described the place as utterly barren.

"Beautiful, isn't it, Anonymous?" came the two-tone voice of Chrysalis, although deep in my heart I knew it was Hunger. The light in the room increased just enough to see that the rock outcropping was some sort of black throne. There, of course, atop it was none other than Hunger. "It looked so much better when there were thousands of my children coming and going in worship of their Queen."

For a moment, I saw a sea of black carapace and glowing blue eyes prostrated in front of the throne. "Then Harmony's pawns—and my dear brother, Discord—corrupted them, and took them away," she lamented as the sea of black rippled and gave birth to a litany of garish, pastel colours. The throne crumbled, and the next thing I knew, she'd draped herself across my back. "Then there were no more—as you once put it—hunger fae."

I blinked, and suddenly there was Twilight—no, that's Harmony again—right at my side. Although she was mostly glaring at the false queen using me as a chaise lounge, that didn't stop her from shooting me a withering look of disappointment. "I understand why you've chosen to do what you've done, Anonymous," Harmony murmured, shaking her head, "but nonetheless I am disappointed in you."

I wanted to speak, but I found that I was frozen. That just left Hunger free to cackle as the altered changelings vanished from the chamber, and a throne of stone rose up beneath us. "She's just upset that I took one of her toys away from her, like the hypocrite she is," Hunger whispered into my ear as she began to pet my mane. "She wanted this—" The great chamber vanished, leaving us sitting among a veritable sea of stars. All around us, little floating panes of glass showed different points of my life. For some reason, an illusory Celestia was there. "—for you... like she hasn't yet hoarded enough power."

Then, just like that, we were back in the cave, atop the throne. "Remember why we're here," Harmony whispered, appearing close enough to lean in towards Hunger's ears. "She played your game, and you made your deal. I'm just here to ensure you don't renege on her."

That drew a sigh from the false queen. She slid off of my back and muttered a petulant, drawn-out "Fine..." One of the glowing pods high on the ceiling descended on a long, slimy tendril. It stopped just in front of us. "Let's review why you're here, Anonymous."

Images flickered across the glowing green pod. There was me as a young boy, sitting at the table with Mom and him, the meat of one rabbit and a mouldy hunk of bread to split between the three of us. Then another picture took its place—me, camped out in the woods, clutching my empty belly as I watched a young opossum eating some berries on the other side of a fire. Another change, and then I was in the background at a party, eating nachos and drinking soda. Another: me eating from a dumpster...

"You have known hunger," she explained. "Hunger, and desires of many kinds..."

"And it certainly doesn't hurt that you'll be able to practice magic and work on building your reservoir whenever you think we aren't looking, right?" echoed the memory of Starlight's words.

"Are there really times where you think of me like a daughter?" I remembered asking Twilight.

"I'm going to kill him."

The images on the pod changed. There was me at some sort of animation-oriented convention, hanging on the arm of a tall young man in black suit-pants and vest, a white dress shirt. It was hard to recognise myself with all the make-up, the pink wig, and the midriff-baring school uniform with miniskirt and thigh-highs. The image changed, the two of us in a bathroom, with me bent over the sink, the skirt pulled up over my back, the tall boy right behind me doing the obvious as he slid some Benjamins into my thigh-high with his free hand. Just as quickly, it changed to me at a poker table in normal clothes, with several shady looking guys, a massive pile of poker chips in front of me. Another change, and I was in a parking lot, my arms being held behind my back as the guys from the table took turns punching me in the gut or face.

"You change yourself to match your environments," Hunger commented. "You do whatever you can to get by, even if it doesn't always work out."

"Anonymous... It's such a strong changeling name," Chrysalis had ranted. "It's so deliciously ironic that Celestia would name an outsider-turned-pony like that. If but you had fallen into my hooves before that meddling whorse got her hooks into you, I could have made you one of my own."

"It tickles me that you would end up here, having played right into my metaphorical hooves," Hunger exclaimed, pulling me into a hug. "The pawn that robbed me of my queen is now becoming my queen."

"Remember," Harmony warned, and it took me a moment to realise it was for Hunger, rather than myself. "Even if you change her, her destiny must remain. Fate will be displeased otherwise."

A strange itching sensation began rolling up my legs body. When I looked down, the fur on my body was falling out, and the bare flesh began turning black and hard. My gaze flicked down to my flank—to my cutie mark. As the black, chitinous material worked its way across my cutie mark, the formerly black mark took on an iridescent green sheen on the otherwise unblemished shell.

"Don't you worry, dear sister," Hunger crooned, dragging her tongue up my cheek as the chitin worked it up my neck. My back felt strange, and there was an odd buzzing sound that accompanied it. When the sensation stopped, so to did the buzzing. "I've worked Fate's little toy into the new and improved design. Even if they try, those failures you corrupted will never corrupt her. In fact, she can continue to live her life exactly as she has."

As the chitin rolled up past my muzzle, the teeth in my mouth began to ache and warp, gaining a degree of sharpness the flat pony teeth never could. "Her path might deviate from the script, but she will still meet the same end Fate has in store," Hunger said in a mocking tone. I found tears rolling down my chitinous face as my mane grew out, taking on the same green tinge that once belonged on my body. "A perfect union of Harmony and Hunger... A queen without a kingdom... The pawn with two masters..."

It felt like the entirety of my body had become hollow. She tricked me... My pleading eyes flicked to Harmony, who looked away, the borrowed form of Twilight unable to entirely mask the sorrow in her eyes. This wasn't part of the deal, but then... Harmony knew all along what Hunger would do...

'You tried to warn me,' I thought at Harmony, trying to encode how sorry I was in that projected message. 'You warned me, and I refused to listen... Even when I could tell she was amplifying my thirst for revenge, stoking my hate, and muting my conscience, I couldn't let go of that hope.'

'I maintain my belief that you should stay with Emerald Flicker,' I heard whispered in my mind. 'Although you will no longer share your body and lives, your souls are too intertwined now to remove the dream bridge. Protect her, teach her, and become the big brother or sister you should have been all along.'

A mirror coalesced in front of us, and what I saw would have floored my jaw—if I had any control over my body. There was Hunger, still wearing the guise of the former changeling queen, snuggled up against a small changeling nymph. It was like I was looking at the switched-up reflection Hunger had mocked me with, only without any of the blur of the non-reflective dream wall she'd projected herself on. The elytra covering what were very likely the wings I'd heard buzzing moments ago—my elytra—was few shades darker than the blue of my magic. But for the tiny nub of an underdeveloped horn, I could have looked like a tiny colour-shifted Chrysalis.

The world around me went dark, but I felt Hunger lean in, nuzzle the top of my head, and plant a kiss. "Awaken, my child, and embrace your birthright," she whispered. "Know that, through your offerings, I am become Désirée: once and future Goddess of the Swarm."

~ 39 ~

After Emerald Flicker's breakdown, Starlight decided that—for the time being—it would be best if the little filly rested. When the Royal Guard inevitably showed up to escort them out of the building, she didn't want her to see whatever carnage Anonymous had left in her wake. In the event that Anon really was gone, as the filly seemed to believe, she wasn't sure Emerald would want her last memories of Anon being the sheer violence and destruction she'd meted out on her behalf. It was bad enough that there remained stains where Storm had been pinned to the wall.

The half-hour leading up to the arrival of the Royal Guard was mostly spent in lying on the floor beside Emerald a state of shock. It was clear that something had been wrong with her. Even discounting the tar-like substance oozing from her face, she'd been talking out loud to somepony—somepony she'd called Hunger. Doubts lingered in Starlight's mind. Did her mind break? Was she possessed? Either would have explained her behaviour, including the manic behaviour and becoming the monster Storm made of her.

Then there was Emerald's fear—that Anon was gone. Emerald had explained, before being put under, that Anon had made her promise to stay under, but had made a promise in turn. "I promise, Emerald," the filly had recited. "Even if the others get angry for what I must do next... even if for a time they drive me away, you will always be my sister. This is my oath to you." It definitely sounded to Starlight like something Anon would say, but it also meant that she may have decided, even before Starlight had been taken, that this would be the outcome.

When the Royal Guard arrived, led by Prince Blueblood and a pegasus lieutenant wearing bandages in place of her helmet. "Ms. Glimmer, Ms. Lulamoon," the prince greeted as two guardsponies took posts at either side of the door. Even as a medic rushed over to the trio and started checking over them. "It's good to see all three of you safe."

"Not all of us, Your Highness." Starlight shook her head as she managed to find her voice. It was hard for her to keep her voice steady. "Anon... I don't really understand much of what happened last night, but they apparently shared a special dream construct granted to them by Harmony... a sort of place for one to rest and recreate during the other's turn... Emerald is convinced Anon's no longer there in that place."

Genuine alarm and concern for another pony was still something she was unused to seeing from the prince. It seemed like only days before, he was this enigma of a pony... a self-centred brute that Anon loathed one moment, and was then bosom buddies with after one misadventure. Yet the look on his face, a well-trained mask though it might be, told her that he would truly grieve Anon if she really was gone. "Could she really just vanish? Just like that?"

Starlight considered not telling him about Raging Storm's last moments, about how the tiny terror had whipped out a unicorn's severed horn and cast some sort of strange spell. No... Remember the tenets... "It's hard to say," she admitted. "I've never seen a spell like that before, never mind an earth pony using a unicorn horn to cast a spell... She channelled some sort of void, into which her jacket, the dye in her coat, Raging Storm's body, and even his soul vanished into after disintegrating."

Against her side, she felt Emerald—Or was it Anon?—stirring. It was astounding to her, because the spell Starlight had cast should have kept her under for a few hours at least. "She's coming," the foal murmured. It was too slurred by sleep for them to tell which one was coming to. Impossibly, Emerald was on her hooves, excitedly looking to an empty spot—exactly where Anon had cast her mysterious spell. "Anon's coming back!"

Slowly, seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once, particles of dust started streaming into the room. It all began to coalesce at one spot—right where Emerald was looking. Eventually, there stood a large, glossy black sphere, nearly as tall as Discord. Once it stopped expanding, it collapsed into nothing.

In place of the sphere, there stood the slender figure of an Abyssinian female, with chocolate-point markings. She looked about the room with a sense of wonder, even as she seemed to test the range of motion of her body. At her side was what really stunned everypony. No larger than Emerald, there was a changeling nymph—if the slit pupil eyes were any indicator, a queen, at that—with but a tiny nub of a horn. What was so stunning about the creature was that it looked so much like the aforementioned filly that they could have been twins, but for their swapped colour palettes and differing species.

Before anypony could stop her, Emerald darted forward and wrapped the changeling filly in a hug. "Anon!" she cried out in relief. The strange cat person even smiled down at the sight before making her way over to the velvet chair and taking a seat. "You came back!"

The changeling—Could it really be her?—saw Blueblood, Lieutenant Summer Haze, and the two tensed guards at the door, and very slowly began to return the hug. "I told you, didn't I?" She spoke in what had definitely been Anon's exact voice and accent, but it still had that sort of multi-layered tone to it that Starlight hadn't heard since Queen Chrysalis. "I said you would always be my little sister. That was the oath I made to you."

Prince Blueblood looked like he'd just developed a massive migraine. "This is going to be so much paperwork," he muttered. "But that explains what happened to all the dead bodies."

The lieutenant, on the other hoof, approached the Abyssinian. "Who, or what are you?" she demanded, growing visibly frustrated as the cat just spun in the chair. Sticking her hoof out to halt it, she continued. "Abyssinians aren't known for their magic."

A surprised look came across the cat lady's face, as though an Equestrian Royal Guard making a demand of her was the most novel thing in the world. Everypony in the room was paying attention to her... well, everyone but Emerald, who was still hugging Anon and crying with glee. Even Anon was watching her. "Oh, I'm completely manifested now?" Her blue eyes flicked over to Anon. A toothy grin spread across her face. "I only expected your offerings to give me an ethereal form with which to experience the world... but to acquire a physical form, like dear Harmony and Discord..."

The creature looked at Prince Blueblood. "I am called Désirée, Hunger Incarnate," she exclaimed with a flourish. "I am the embodiment of desire, ambition, and the struggle." Pointing over at the small changeling, she let out a chuckle. "Your little friend helped me achieve my hunger to explore the pleasures of the mortal world." As if suddenly remembering something, she hopped up onto her paws, and danced over to Anon and Emerald. "I think you deserve a little thanks before I take my leave, my little queen."

Everyone tensed as she reached down and poked the little nub on Anon's forehead with her claw. A line of blue flame rolled up her hooves, leaving a perfect copy of Anon as she'd been before the dye job, complete with the discoloured patches in her coat. "There, that's much better," Désirée purred, patting both fillies atop their heads, even as a queasy look crossed Anon's face. "No sense in having a changeling who doesn't know how to fly or transform... Even if those traitors can't corrupt you, I still don't trust them not to try while teaching you."

Once the look of queasiness passed, Anon backed away from Désirée, dragging the giggling Emerald with her. "I'm not going to thank you," she growled in her natural voice. "You played with my head, and didn't even tell me that this was your end goal..."

Tears rolled freely down her cheeks, even as she squinted at the Embodiment of Hunger. A transformation so perfect that it even replicated her need for glasses, Starlight thought quietly as the two fillies returned to her side. "You didn't tell me that your spell would make me eat his soul, or all those bodies," she sobbed. Emerald didn't hesitate to pat her back. "I'm thankful to have a body, but I'll never be your pawn... or Harmony's pawn... not ever again."

The cat lady just smirked. "I wouldn't have it any other way," she said, slowly dissipating into a cloud of sand. "A queen is nobody's pawn but her own." For a moment, two piercing blue lights were all that remained of her, and they were looking directly at Anon. "Nonetheless, I hope you put on a good show..."