Author's Note

If the chapter title wasn't a give-away, this is not a canon chapter. Instead, it explores a possibility. "What if Anon was sentenced to Tartarus and slowly went insane because god forbid she get fed love on a regular basis."

Non-Canon: 'Bad End'

A while after I made up for lost time with the girls, I noticed Spike, who'd been conversing with Fluttershy and a young hippogriff, watching me. I presumed the hippogriff to be Queen Novo's daughter, and the source of the wonderment I'd been picking up from outside the garden. What caught my interest more was the fact that Spike had just belched up a scroll. I knew full well about his mail-delivery flames, so when he did so, I didn't freak out all that much.

What did freak me out was when he opened the freshly delivered letter—which contained another scroll rolled up inside—and then paled. He looked slightly spooked as he apologised to his conversational partners and rushed over, holding up the smaller scroll. "Anon!" he called out as he ran. "You're gonna wanna see this!"

I turned to the girls with a frown. "Sorry, I think my time for fun is at an end," I apologised, walking over to meet Spike. Since I was about as tall as Starlight in my human disguise, I towered over him. "What's up, Spike?"

He pressed the parchment into my hands. "It's a letter from Princess Celestia," was his response. "It's pretty urgent." There was an expectant look on his face, and his ear-spines were twitching something fierce, so I figured I better read it quick. Without further prompting, I broke the seal with one of my fingernails and unrolled the scroll.

Anonymous Flicker,

It pains us to do this after all that you have been through, but we must request your presence in the throne room immediately. In an official capacity, the events of the last week, as well as their consequences, must be discussed. Princess Twilight Sparkle will be in attendance at this meeting as your guardian and advocate, but we ask that you come alone.

Present this letter to any guard and you will be escorted to the throne room.

~Princess Celestia

I blinked and sighed. So the other shoe drops. With a nod to Spike, I walked over to one of the guards watching over the garden and passed him the scroll. While he read over its contents, I reverted to my usual pony appearance and removed my glasses from the top of my head, returning them to their rightful place. Without a word, the stallion started leading me through the castle halls.

If not for the fact that feeding on Cadance had done a lot to stabilise my mood, I'd probably be panicking. It'd be so easy to just freak the fuck out over the possibility that Celestia decided I was a threat and that I was to be banished to Tartarus. Was it likely? Hardly. Auntie Twilight wouldn't let her, but I don't think she'd banish a foal to that accursed place. That seemed more like the sort of place you'd send the likes of Sombra, Tirek, or whatever the pony equivalent of Hitler was. But then, I keep saying I'm not just a foal...

That said, I also wasn't expecting the Sun Horse to roll out a hero's welcome for me. There were things I had to answer for, and consequences to my actions. I had to face them eventually. Truth be told, I think I preferred the idea that we'd be getting it out of the way now rather than when I went to the Crystal Empire when I was planning on healing. If I got lucky, I might not end up locked up for any stretch of time.

"I don't know how ponies can just tolerate her presence," I heard one maid whispering to another as the two of us passed. "They should just lock her up and be done with it! It's what she deserves!"

Even if I wasn't as paranoid or self-hating as I had been while starving, that comment still cut deep. The fur on the back of my neck begin to prickle with anger, but the other maid spoke up and stopped my blood cold. "You know that's not how the princesses do things. The way I heard it, Princess Celestia already has a plan for how that little monster will be punished." Traitor... They're talking about Tempest, not me. "Apparently Princess Twilight herself advocated for leniency, but Princess Celestia overruled her."

Although I caught something about a cushy job and Blueblood before we got out of earshot, I didn't hear enough to get a full context. Still, I don't know what Blueblood and a cushy job has to do with Tempest. Instead, I just kept my eyes ahead, my head down, and kept following the guard. It'll be all over soon.

When we finally got to the fuckmassive throne-room doors, I was let right in. There on her big cushy throne sat the white horse herself. At the foot of the dais, sat Auntie Twilight, as well as a grey and black unicorn mare that I'm pretty sure served as Celestia's personal assistant. What really caught me off guard was the fact that Princess Luna was present on a smaller throne beside Celestia's. If Cadance had also been present, it would've been a full-on princess conference call regarding my fate. No such luck, though. Even if she were here, she could only advocate on my behalf like Auntie Twilight.

The doors slammed shut behind me as I crossed their threshold, and the princesses all fixed me with unreadable expressions. The only pony not wearing a masque of professionalism was Twilight. She looked anxious, but there was something heavier in her emotional aura that almost made me turn tail and run as her eyes flicked from me to the thrones. She's afraid and angry, not at me, but at the Princesses.

I followed the carpet leading up to the foot of the dais, and then slipped into the pony equivalent of a respectful bow—folding one foreleg beneath me while the other bent to bring me low. Since this was an official capacity, I knew that I should remain that way until told otherwise. It took what felt like a half-hour before she finally gave me permission to rise... Clearly she wanted me to sweat a bit first.

When I did, and met Celestia's gaze, she heaved a sigh. "Anonymous Flicker, before we begin, I want you to know that this is mostly a formality," she explained in a soft, apologetic tone. "That said, I need to be sure; do you understand why you've been called here?" She's speaking to me like an adult... that's certainly a nice change of pace. None of the soft intonations or shit ponies usually do to dance around the point when talking to a foal.

"I do, Your Highness," I answered without breaking eye contact. "I'm to be put on trial—or something approaching one—for the actions I've taken over the last week or so." Rather than say anything, she gave a subtle nod of her head, as if to tell me to continue. Sucking in a deep breath, I girded myself before continuing—intending to mute my emotional reactions as much as possible. "Chiefly, I imagine this pertains to the actions taken under the influence of the entity now known as Désirée: vigilantism, vandalism, assaulting a police officer, the unauthorised use of combat magic by a civilian, eighteen killings pertaining to Raging Storm and the Blackwing Cartel, dark magic, desecration of pony remains, giving form to an Embodied Concept, and disobeying a lawful order from the defacto head-of-state."

Princess Celestia's eyebrow twitched, and it seemed like there was a vein throbbing in her temple. It was Princess Luna that spoke up however. "We were made aware of most of the items you listed, but could you clarify three of them?" she asked, glancing from me to Twilight. "You listed vandalism, assaulting a police officer, and desecration of remains. This is the first we've heard of any of these."

Biting my lip, I turned to meet her gaze. "I encountered two police ponies while on my way to the Blackwing hideout. One was crooked, and the other was a goody four-shoes who got in the way. I hit them with a pressurised water jet and slammed them into a wall to remove them as obstacles." Twilight slowly covered her face with her hoof and started shaking her head. "Desecration and vandalism kinda go hoof-in-hoof, as I used a pony-turned-carcass as a battering ram through a brick wall." I paused for a moment, caught up in thought. "Oh, and the spell Hunger had me cast literally turned all of the bodies in and around the warehouse into fuel for the spell she cast to separate me from Emerald."

I'm kinda glad Cadance isn't here, was what I thought as Twilight, Celestia, and the secretary went somewhat green, even as their emotional auras filled with disgust. Hell... If not for the fact that I was focusing on keeping my emotions dulled, I might have been feeling a bit ill myself. Even if it wasn't the worst thing I'd done that day, it was probably one of the most vicious. Plus, it made me shiver remembering the way the guy's blood clung to me after.

The only pony that seemed unfazed by it all was Luna. Oh, she was quite good at hiding the disappointment radiating off of her, but there was concern, and worry. Then again, she had personal experience with this sort of thing. I had to remind myself that I was not the only pony in the world to have had their will subverted, even if only subtly, by malign entities. I also kinda got the vibe from her that she might have been the 'Sword of Equestria' back before her fall from grace a thousand years ago.

Once everyone had taken time to compose themselves, Celestia sighed and regarded me with a dark look. "Those are indeed the reasons you have been summoned here." She was really good at hiding the anger from her voice, but nothing could be done to hide the red filling the air. "We understand the extenuating circumstances that led into this series of events, and those will be taken into consideration when we deliver our judgement, but we are unfortunately unable to simply turn our gaze from all of this."

That made me a bit nervous. Everything about her tone of voice told me that she was going to throw the book at me, even if she didn't necessarily like it. Even Twilight looked a bit worried now. Then again, I wasn't exactly expecting a slap on the wrist for everything I did. All I can do now is pray for lenience.

Instead of continuing, Celestia looked towards Luna and nodded. "From watching your dreams, I know that you would not default to lethal force in your right state of mind," she said, taking the cue to start from the Sun Horse. I opened my mouth to voice an objection, but she gently held my muzzle shut with magic. "Based on the report from the guard that served as a spotter while you defended the train station plaza, you never took easy kill shots. Even then, a discussion with Starlight Glimmer revealed that you were disturbed that you had killed the crew of an entire airship in the defence of the train."

She paused, considering her words. "That being said, I also know that from your dreams, you do not regret what you have done, and even if you might deny it, you would be inclined to follow the same path again." She regarded Twilight with an unreadable expression for a few moments. "That you were capable of this at all, with the body and brain of a pony foal is nothing short of monstrous. Now that you are what Désirée has made of you, we have our doubts that you won't relapse should you ever go hungry. Worse, given that you are now destined to live for millennia as Chrysalis before you did, we worry your mind will break long before whatever vows you make."

My ears folded back. Oh fuck, I'm getting the book thrown at me. I glanced to Auntie Twilight, but her ears were mimicking mine. She couldn't meet my gaze, either. The worst part was that I could practically see 'I'm sorry!' written in the regret and sorrow in her emotional spectrum.

"You never should have been put in that situation, and had the Manehattan Police Department been doing their jobs, you wouldn't have had to do any of that," she said with a disgusted growl. This was followed up with a stomp of her hoof that caused cracks to spiderweb across the stone dais. "Those criminals were brazen enough to ambush a Royal Guard escort!"

Celestia nodded, a grim expression playing across her face as she took over for her sister. "Be that as it may, what you did was not justice," she redirected. "While we have no doubt that many of the ponies slain that day deserved their fates, it was not your place to play judge, jury, and executioner. Had you merely rendered them incapable of fighting, and left them to be tried, their families would come to know of their crimes in court, and accept the punishment their loved ones would have received. Instead, all that you have done is thrown an entire city into an upheaval that will take years to settle, all while making martyrs of those you've slaughtered. We see no choice but to imprison you, Anonymous Flicker; the option of one hundred years in stone, or Tartarus—"

Twilight let out an indignant cry, and threw herself between me and the princesses. "Princess! That's too much!" she pleaded, looking from Celestia's grim expression to Luna's mixed look of regret and hate. "Anon has been through so much, and her brain chemistry stabilised once Cadance directly fed her. She's not a threat anymore!"

That elicited a pitying laugh from Luna. "Twilight, were Anonymous any other pony, We might be willing to entertain this argument," she replied. Even though all I could see was Twilight's flank, I could feel the princesses' gazes piercing through her to get to me. "Her talent, creativity, and impulsivity makes her an existential threat not just to Equestria, or merely all life... Given time she could pose more of a threat to reality itself than even Discord!"

It felt like there was ice in the pit of my stomach. Was... Luna giving up on me? Did even the pony who nearly killed all life on the planet not once, but twice see me as that much of a lost cause? I turned my gaze to the floor and stepped around Twilight. Maybe she was right... Just because I feel good now, and intend to get mental help, it doesn't mean I won't have some crisis of faith down the line and break completely. As it stands, could I not already make spells that would cause irreparable harm to the world?

Maybe it's for the best... Emerald will be safer if I'm not around... No vengeance from those I've killed... No risk of me hurting her or the girls... Isn't this what big sisters are for? To protect their little siblings, even from themselves?

"If I am turned to stone, will I be conscious?" I asked, finally meeting Celestia's inscrutable pink eyes. "Will I dream?"

The alicorn seemed caught off guard by my question, and it took her a moment to respond. Finally, she shook her head. "You will not." Her horn lit up, and an illusory copy of me—the me behind the transformation—appeared before her. I watched as the black chitin slowly faded to a stony grey, creeping up the copy's body until she was naught but a statue. "For you, it will be but a blink." Illusory stone flaked away from the copy Anon, and she looked around in confusion. "But everything you know and love will be either gone or irreparably changed."

Again, Twilight interposed herself between us. "Princess, this is monstrous and cruel!" she cried, radiating impotent rage. "I-if you do this, I'll have no choice but to abdicate. Sending her to Tartarus would only make her into the monster you make her out to be, and I cannot in good conscience affiliate with a crown that would do that to a child, even if she has the mind of an adult. I—"

Whatever she was about to say died in her throat as I shed my disguise and wrapped her in a hug. "It's alright, Aun—no, Mom," I whispered. When I pulled away, I could see the tears in her eyes as her heart broke. "If this is how it has to be, it is what it is..."

At that, I lifted off and flew over Twilight, placing myself before Princess Celestia. She looked surprised when I said, "I choose Tartarus, Your Highness." Every single pony in the room gasped as I lowered my head in a bow, submitting myself to my fate. "I would rather be stuck in a place of damnation and watch Emerald grow up through our link than to blink and miss her life completely."

With a sigh, Princess Celestia rose from her throne. "So be it." She actually sounded saddened by this, much to my surprise. "Anonymous Flicker, for crimes against ponykind, and the existential threat you pose to all life, I... Princess Celestia, Sol Invictus, sentence you to Tartarus for a span of no more than twelve years."

A circle of flames formed around me. Chains of cold iron rose up out of the floor and wrapped themselves around my body. I was given just enough slack to turn to look to Twilight. "Goodbye, Mom," I said as the chains slowly pulled me into the floor. "I love you."

~ One Year After Sentencing ~

The chains around Cozy Glow's neck and wings chafed as she followed alongside a Royal Guard. It was clear that the magical restraints had been magically resized for a pony of her diminutive stature—not that they particularly cared, given that she was being taken to Tartarus on hoof. In fact, most of trip had been either by train or chariot, so that she could be brought in through the sole physical entrance to the magical prison that held the worst of the worst, and the most dangerous magical creatures in Equestria. It wasn't all that surprising, given the way magic was still recovering in the wake of her failed attempt to rid the world of all magic.

As she looked around, Cozy couldn't help but notice all of the empty cages and the seemingly preternatural darkness filling the massive cave system that served as the prison. Not only was it dark and creepy here, but it was way too quiet. "Golly, mister guard," she said to fill the silence. "Where is everypony? It seems like there's nopony here but us."

"There used to be," the pegasus stallion commented in an anxious voice. That was when Cozy noticed that the guard was also looking around, scanning the darkness for threats. "Then they put it in here, and all of the other prisoners slowly started disappearing."

A creepy giggle reverberated throughout the cave. It simultaneously seemed like it was coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. Even as the guard tucked his own tail between his legs, she took an instinctive step toward him. If there was something here that scared even her guard escort, she did not want to be caught unawares. "B-but if there's something loose in here, making the prisoners disappear, wouldn't it be inequine to leave me here all by my lonesome?"

Whatever his thoughts on the matter, he refrained from making them known. Instead, he led her to a large cage in the centre of it all. There was a nameplate, which read Tirek, but the name had been crudely slashed through, and the cage appeared empty. The stallion guided her to a smaller cage and opened the door with a key that had been clipped to his armour.

That was when the creepy laughter began again. "Aww, did you bring your sex-pet by to visit, Flashy-boy?" came an eerie two-tone voice. That was when Cozy realised the larger cage wasn't nearly as empty as it looked. Instead, a tiny black mass—no larger than the new prisoner herself—rose up out of the large pile of straw that served as bedding. Even as a pegasus, she could sense the immense magical power behind those glowing green orbs. "I knew you liked my young Twilight disguise, but damn, you do like them young, don't you?"

Cosy glow recoiled in revulsion as she realised what was inside that cage. It was one of those unreformed changelings, like the swarm that had attacked Canterlot a few years back. Much like the bugs of old, this one's chitin was dull and cracked, her legs full of holes. Her eyes were more like that of a dragon's though, and they had a sickly look about them.

"Anon," the guard responded in a terse voice. "This is your new roommate." With a stomp of his hoof, he added, "and stop suggesting I'm into foals!" Turning to his still-bound prisoner, Flash gave a humourless laugh. "Cozy Glow, meet Anonymous, the Butcher of Manehattan."

Cozy found herself backing away as far as her chain would allow her. She'd heard about that whole thing. During the Storm King's invasion, a foal made a deal with some sort of demon and became a monster in order to save her loved-ones. This was a creature so big of a danger that Princess Celestia herself sentenced it to Tartarus to protect everypony. Evidently, it was dangerous enough that it had dealt with all of the other inhabitants of the prison in under a year.

As she took a better look at the little changeling, her mind drifted back to a photo that somepony had submitted to the newspapers in the wake of the changeling queen's attack on Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's wedding. That said, there were still differences. The mane style, eyes, face, and general look of madness all matched up, but her horn was far too stubby, and she had not a trace of maliciousness in her expression.

"Ohhh, is this the one that got Momma to come all the way from the Crystal Empire to visit and teach me new runes a few weeks ago?" the insane little changeling asked, licking her lips as she gazed at her new roommate. "You must have been a really bad filly. Momma really didn't like having to teach me how to make a portal, but someone was draining all of the magic from Equestria, and ended up trapping her and her friends here. If only Luna had told her I ate Tirek last month."

That actually made Flash tense up. "She taught you... but then..."

"Why am I still here?" She let out a chuckle, transforming herself into a snake and sliding through the bars. Slowly, she slid over to Cozy Glow, and climbed up her body to take a seat upon her head. "Flash Sentry, I'll have you know that I am a voluntary prisoner. Whether they intended it or not, I am the monster they now feed monsters to."

The diminutive pegasus twitched, looking to her guard escort with a panicked look. To his credit, although he looked unnerved—and maybe even a bit terrified—he didn't seem all that worried for his own safety. "Be that as it may, I have orders from Princess Celestia herself that say you are not to eat this one." Such a statement should have reassured Cozy, but for some reason, it only made her more anxious. "Even Princess Twilight believes that, in time, she can be redeemed, but you can't redeem the dead."

Cozy barely even saw the changeling-turned-snake leap from her head. All she really saw was the flash of blue as Anon morphed into some abomination the likes of which she'd never seen, putting herself between the guard and her prisoner. A split-jaw opened to reveal many rows of teeth as she breathed in his face, while a serpentine tail held up all of her body. "I only kill monsters and those that don't give me a choice," she bellowed in a voice that sounded more like clicking and hissing. The stallion winced back, and barely even noticed as her scythe-like appendage slashed cleanly through the chain holding Cozy. Even she was too stunned and afraid to move. "Be grateful for that."

With one scythe-clawed limb, Anonymous snatched the keys from the door of the smaller cell, and started testing for the lock of her own door. Even though her new shape didn't appear to have any sort of ears, that didn't exactly stop her from hearing the guard's muttered comment. "Tell that to the families of the mobsters you murdered." Her tail lashed behind her, nearly clipping the tip of his muzzle. "That's what I thought."

As soon as the door swung inward, the changeling's long, snakelike tail lashed out, wrapping around the young pony, dragging her into the cage. When Anon shut the cage door behind her, she glared at Flash. "Mister Sentry, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were asserting that paedophiles aren't monsters," she hissed with such force that she inadvertently sprayed saliva all over him. "Good thing that Momma seems to like having you around to remind her of her crush from the other world, or I'd do to you what I did to every other monster in this place..."

Her threat seemed to have the desired effect; as the scent of urine began to assail their nostrils, the guard stallion turned the key to lock the door. Then, without warning, he took flight to the entrance to this cavern. Although she wanted to beg him not to leave her here with this... thing. It wasn't safe!

With the stallion gone, however, there was nothing to keep Anon's attention off of Cozy. It was hardly any comfort at all when the changeling reverted to her natural state. It just made it all the easier to see how deranged the creature was. She'd gone from threatening to eat a royal guard to looking like just another excitable foal. That wasn't natural.

It was all Cozy Glow could do to keep from screaming when Anon launched herself at the pegasus. That terror quickly gave way to confusion as instead of an attack, she found herself wrapped in a hug. "Oooh, it's so good to have someone else to talk to in here," she chattered with glee. "Sure, I can talk to my little sister Emerald when we sleep, but it's just not the same as talking to someone face-to-face, you know?" That manic twinkle returned to Anon's eye as she drug her tongue up the side of Cozy's face. "Even though you tried to hurt my big sis, Starlight, I can just tell we're gonna be the best of friends."

~ Eleven Years After Sentencing ~

When Princess Twilight Sparkle's guard captain opened the gates to Tartarus, she wasn't expecting much. More than a decade ago, the creature for whom she'd become a mother figure had been sentenced to this place after her fall from grace. It'd taken Anonymous Flicker less than a year to eat every single creature as her love-starved body tried to sate her insatiable hunger. It had become a place so barren and deadly that only those who earned the death penalty were sent there.

It wasn't until Cozy Glow had been sentenced to the place for her own crimes that the young changeling actually began making demands for foodstuffs to be regularly brought in. It was, after all, a prison for her new cellmate, not a tomb. All it took was a promise that she would stop eating every other sapient they sent in, and Twilight had caved to the request of her daughter.

In recent years, however, the guard staff that regularly inspected the prison had begun rotating out with a powerful geas placed upon them swearing them to secrecy. In one of the letter exchanges, the creature swore it was nothing bad; it was just a surprise she wanted Twilight to see in person some day. Apparently her other daughter, Emerald, was well aware of what the secret was, but had been sworn to secrecy.

She was caught entirely off guard when the door opened to reveal a surprisingly cushy gatehouse that appeared in part to be constructed of changeling hive resin, and old cages. It appeared as though the ponies assigned to guard the inside had made a cosy little home, complete with furniture and beds. That wasn't exactly what caught Twilight off guard, however. Seated at one of the low tables, drinking tea with one of the Royal Guards that she sincerely hoped was off duty, was an unreformed changeling queen nymph with a light-blue mane. Based on the size of her, the little creature couldn't have been older than five years old.

As the pair noticed the alicorn and her guard detail, the changeling nymph ducked beneath the table to hide herself. Her companion, a sergeant who himself had in the past served as part of Twilight's guard rota, just smiled and waved. "Welcome to Tartarus, Princess Twilight," he said before peering under the table. "Go tell your mothers that very important guests have arrived."

Twilight could only watch with surprised amusement as the little foal peered over the edge of the table at her, and then glanced at the guard. She gave him a quick nuzzle before spreading her wings and flying out through the barred windows. "Sergeant Strongwind, was that...?" It was all Twilight could manage as he began donning his armour. "How...?"

He just shrugged and grabbed a keyring off a nearby wall hook. "I try not to think about it, and I really don't want to know," he said simply, leading Twilight and her group over to a gate constructed from yet more cages. "That, at any rate, was Mimic. Nice enough little one, but shy around strangers. Best behaved of the bunch though."

The alicorn could only gape at him as he led them through the gate and into the prison itself. Anon is a mother now... and she's raising multiple foals in what was supposed to be a place of punishment. That was when she finally looked around outside the gatehouse and gasped. Had she not already had her mouth open, her jaw certainly would have dropped. She's turned the most secure prison in all of Equestria into a small city!?

"Welcome to Helheim Hive, Your Highness," the stallion explained as he led her down a lane—illuminated by tall stalks of bio-luminescent fungi—of small buildings. The four closest to the gate-house were large, constructed of stone, and had barred windows. "Those are the newcomer pens. All new Tartarus intakes end up in those, and they stay there, watching the rest of the community Anon has created until they volunteer for a pacification geas."

The further into the cavern they went, the more creatures she saw out and about. It stunned her when many of the creatures she'd personally sentenced here smiled and waved at her as Strongwind led them past some townhouses. It wasn't just ponies or the odd griffon serial killer, either. There were literal monsters that S.M.I.L.E. had likely apprehended and locked away here, and they were just as docile as everyone else.

Despite the fact that her daughter was quite literally subverting creatures' free will, she couldn't help but feel impressed with what she was seeing... especially when the lane passed a large field of mushrooms that creatures tended, while a manticore dragged a cart made of unknown materials over to a storehouse. On the other side of the lane, there appeared to be a lake carved out. Was it her imagination, or did she see a griffon out on a boat on the lake?

Finally, the stallion led them to a stately marble house at the back of the cavern. It was nothing short of a mansion built into the cavern wall. As soon as they got close to the door, it swung open to reveal a familiar pink pegasus in her late teens. Her light-blue locks were nowhere near as curly as they had been when she'd been first sent here. There was just the slightest bit of surprise on her face as she spotted the tall alicorn. "Welcome, Princess," the young mare said without any trace of sarcasm in her voice. When she noticed the sergeant, her wings fluffed a bit as she smiled. "Mimic told us we had important guests, but she didn't say anything about royalty. Please come in while I put some tea on and fetch Anon. Could you lead them to the sitting room, Strong?"

Although Twilight could see the way she sashayed teasingly as she retreated into the house and up a set of stairs, she couldn't help but notice the obsidian ring hanging on a gold chain around her neck. She wanted to ask where the gold chain had come from, but she was completely overtaken by the implication of the ring. An exchange of rings was a unicorn tradition of engagement that the other tribes took on during the unification, but lacking horns, non-unicorns often wore them on such chains. Strangely, when she quickly cast a spell to check for mind magic, she found not one on the mare.

Strongwind led her into a small room with furniture carved—or maybe conjured—from smooth basalt. The sofas were topped with cushions that definitely couldn't have come from anywhere within Tartarus. Is she having the Royal Guard buy things for her, or is she sneaking out to shop from time to time? I never should have taught her those runes, but at the time we had no choice.

They sat in the room for a few minutes before Twilight finally asked Strongwind, "So how long has all this—" She waved a wing broadly as if to emphasise the whole room, or maybe the cavern. "—been going on? This used to be a prison for monsters, but now it reminds me of a marginally less evil version of what Starlight did to Our Town."

"I only joined the Tartarus rota five years ago, but she had this whole home and a few of the domiciles and pens built by the time I got here," he answered, tilting his head toward the dim corridor, where five sets of eyes peered around the corner at varying heights. Two of them, blue and scarlet respectively, had the same split-pupil eyes that Anon had, but the other four were more like those of a drone. "Maybe a week into my first shift, her little brood of terror emerged from their pupae. At least Mimic and Doppelganger keep them in line."

As two sets of hoofsteps began to approach, the watching eyes all vanished into the gloom of the hallway. A few moments later, Cozy Glow rounded the corner, a kettle, a box of tea, and some ornate cups on a tray balanced across her back. This was soon followed by a tall changeling queen in perfect health—a far cry from what she'd looked merely a year into her sentence. If anything, she seemed to be thriving now, whereas she looked on the verge of going mad back then.

It was the first time Twilight had seen Anon in person in six years, and although Princess Luna helped facilitate visitations through the dream realm, Anon's form never seemed to age there. Now, however, she was tall and lanky, her carapace and mane both shined. Around her long, curved horn, she could see a ring of rose quartz. More than that, though, she was quite clearly pregnant.

"Hey, Mom! Long time no see," the changeling queen exclaimed, slowly waddling along behind Cozy. It looked to Twilight as though Anon considered rushing over to hug her, but the way her eyes flicked to the alicorn's bodyguards told her she wouldn't do anything the princess didn't initiate. With a nervous laugh, she glanced at her own egg-laden belly, her apparent marefriend, and the window. "Surprise, I guess..."

As the pair caught up with one another, Twilight felt conflicted. On the one hoof, she was happy that Anon had found someone she wanted to fall in love with and that she already had a family started, and was impressed by what her adoptive daughter had accomplished in turning brutal murderers, rapists, and monsters into something approaching a respectable society. On the other, she was rather upset that—without any sort of input from the crown—she had turned the most secure prison in all of the world into her own little hive, mind controlled prisoners into passivity, and gotten pregnant at fourteen. Then there was the lingering question of how in Equestria she had tamed such a conniving brat, and a further question of how the hell said brat had gotten her pregnant.

"While I'm happy to see you, I don't imagine you came just to be surprised with my fiance and babies." Anon finally commented, sipping at her tea. Setting down her cup, she leaned against Cozy, a happy look on her face. "What brings you to Helheim?"

With a sigh, Twilight set her own cup down and fixed her daughter with a stare. "Two reasons," she replied. "First, I came to tell you that your sentence is up and that you're free to come home." Her eyes flicked to Cozy. "Your entire family, I guess."

The changeling queen shrugged. "I'm content where I am, Mom." She looked to the window, which looked out over all of the cavern. "With nothing else to do, I figured why not do what Hunger asked of me, and repopulate the true changelings, and maybe try to do something good with this place. Helheim is my home now, pacified monsters and all. I wouldn't say no to seeing Starlight and Emerald in person... Oh! Can we hold the wedding in Canterlot?"

Shaking her head, Twilight just laughed. "The other reason I came was to ask for your help," she said with a much more grave tone. "An alicorn from the same lands as Celestia and Luna has appeared, and is causing no shortage of problems. She is trying to sow disharmony among the tribes, and steal all magic for herself... She... refuses a peaceful option, and I fear that she is beyond redemption. Could you... do something about her?"

Nobody spoke for a long time. In fact, Anon shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Do you want her dead, or just gone?" Her voice took on a sharp tone, and Twilight could see the tightness in her face. When Anon opened her eyes, they were cold, like that of the unrepentant killers she'd sentenced here. "Either way, gimme a week to lay this clutch and get my affairs in order." A dark smile crossed her face, and she glanced over to the corridor where her nymphs were no doubt eavesdropping. "Maybe it's time I take my son, Doppelganger, on his first hunt..."

~ Elsewhere ~

Opaline Arcana, the Alicorn of Fire, reclined atop her throne. Her castle was empty of any servants at the moment, and she stared down at her scrying pool. It was unusual for Princess Twilight Sparkle to be somewhere she could not see with her magic. The foolish friendship-obsessed whelp seldom left Canterlot or Ponyville these days. It unnerved her, because it meant she could not find out what her foe was up to.

Suddenly, it felt like somepony was talking about her. She'd created a spell to notify her if she'd been mentioned specifically so she could spy on her enemy, and someone was definitely talking about her right now. The fact that she couldn't use her scrying pool to watch them made her very uncomfortable, because it meant that Twilight was likely aware of the spell, as well as the fact that she was spying on her from afar.

Without warning, her blood ran cold in her veins. It felt as though someone had just stepped over her grave. She didn't understand the how or the why, but some strange sense of self-preservation was screaming at her to run... to run fast and to run far. She wanted to dismiss it as just something random, conjured up by anxiety, but she couldn't shake the feeling that death itself was now coming for her.