It was cold. In all honesty, I expected Equestria’s answer to Hell to be just that little bit warmer. But instead, the place was cold, dark and draughty. It was like a vast network of caves, all connected to each other by narrow passages, bordered on each side by seemingly endless drops. Up above, all you could see was the rock face ceiling and a few stalagmites staring back down at you.

Now, what was I doing here you ask, in Tartarus of all places? Well, I wasn’t here just to make a fuss of Cerberus, although I must admit the giant three headed dog has grown on me over the years. He certainly seems to like me and enjoys having his three heads patted. No, I was here on business. I was here to pay call on one of this place’s nastiest prisoners.

You see, a week ago, Equestria was almost stripped of all its magic. That wasn’t a new emergency, it had almost happened before when Tirek got loose. But this time, instead of taking it for himself, he had been able to siphon it off to a remote location, and then planned to cast is all into the Void. I guess he went down the six year olds’ logic route of ‘if I can’t have it, no one can’. Had he succeeded the world would have lasted...oh… about another week maybe. After all, nopony would be able to move the sun and moon, or control the weather. So you’d have half the planet cooking, the other half freezing, mass starvation that would make Ethiopia look like a minor thing, and the few who survived all that would be ravaged by out of control weather.

This time though, he’d had a bit of a trick up his sleeve. After all, Tirek was locked up down here, in a cage created by the Elements. He wasn’t getting out, even with all the magic gone from this world. So how had he managed to do it? Simple; he’d had help.

Remember that filly, Cozy Glow, I told you about at Twilight’s school? It turns out my odd feelings about her were right on the money. Behind that cute and innocent facade was something I’d not expected to find in Equestria, at least not in a nine year old foal. Still, at least I now knew who pinched those course materials. She had somehow got in contact with Tirek, who’d reinforced her existing warped view of the world and friendship. She’d joined him in his scheme and got it into her head that by getting rid of all magic, she could declare herself Empress of Friendship.

Yeah, that was never gonna fly. Even by the standards of villains here in Equestria, that was never going to work. Twilight and her friends had gone to confront Tirek, and it had been their six students that helped stop Cozy, with the help of the Tree of Harmony. It had used its magic to close the portal to the Void and returned everypony’s magic.

That now left us with a bit of a problem. What to do about this mad little filly? Magic or no, Celestia, Luna, and half the Royal Guard, who thanks to Flash Magnus are finally back up to their old strength, came down from Canterlot to put a stop to her plan. After her plan was exposed for all to see, she was promptly arrested.

That sort of rubbed me the wrong way if I’m honest. I mean, yes she did something terrible, and yes she was an evil little filly, but at the age of nine, she was technically below the age of criminal responsibility. And given that she did seem quite mad, I figured she belonged in a hospital more than anywhere else. The real culprit was surely Tirek. He’d obviously manipulated a vulnerable child into doing his bidding.

It was this that brought me down to Tartarus. The place was a whole lot busier than when I last came down here. Celestia has gone on quite the spree of late. Whereas before the place had been fairly quiet, now you had several dozen cages set up, holding beasties like hydras, cockatrices, and even that bugbear that SMILE had been dealing with (yes I know about ‘Bon Bon’ and who she really is). But beyond them, situated on his old little island of sorts, was Tirek, still in his cage. In addition to his plan not foreseeing the six students, he also didn’t plan for Pinkie Pie. See, he planed to use the lack of magic to trap the six ponies in Tartarus with him, having seemingly resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t getting out. A sort of scorched earth policy. Cozy would help him remove all the magic and then he could sit back and watch the world end. Pinkie though, pulled the old ‘I’m not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me’ line on him, that promptly changed his mind.

He certainly wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon. That little stunt had killed any surviving notions of possibly reforming Tirek. He was going to be in here for a long old time.

But before that got started, I needed a word with him. It seemed simply locking him up hadn’t deterred him in the slightest. So I was going to try a little negative reinforcement. And beyond that, if I could learn how he and Cozy came into contact, so much the better. Maybe then we could do something about undoing the damage he’d done to her.

But I won’t hide behind flimsy rationalisations; I was also here for a spot of revenge. The last time we’d spoken, Tirek had told me that when he got loose, the first thing he’d do was take the magic of my children. I’d politely told him that I’d kill him if he tried it. Evidently words weren’t enough, so I was going to provide him with a more emphatic response. Nopony, and no creature lays a hair on my children's heads and gets away with it. Turns out I still had some useful skills from my days with the volunteers.

As I walked along the narrow winding path and Tirek’s cell came into view, I sung an old jaunty tune that seemed appropriate, given the circumstances.

Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler,
If you think we’re on the run?
We are the boys who will stop your little game,
We are the boys who will make you think again.
Cause who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler,
If you think old England’s done?

Tirek however, wasn’t a fan of Dad’s Army. Further evidence if you ask me, that he’s absolutely and utterly evil and incapable of reformation. Staring through the bars at me, it looked as thought he was trying to use what little magic he still had to vaporise me.

“Must you persist with that infernal singing?” he asked in his rasping voice. “It’s bad enough being stuck down here.”

“Oh, I can’t help it, Tirek,” I replied with a smile. “I’m in such a good mood. I’ve come all the way down here just to see you.” Tirek folded his withered arms.

“To gloat no doubt,” he sneered. Now I dropped the happy facade, letting out a dark chuckle.

“No, Tirek,” I answered with a smile. “I’m here because of what I said to you the last time we met. You hurt my children, and that really upsets me.”

Tirek retreated a little in his cell as I fished out the rusty iron key that unlocked the door at the front of his cage. Stepping inside and being careful to close it behind me, I watched as he retreated further, right to the opposite corner of the cell. I slowly walked towards him.

“If I remember correctly,” I said. “You said ‘One day, I will get out of here. And when I do, your children will be the first to fall.’. And do you remember what I said?”

The gap between us was now almost non-existent. Tirek was pressing himself up against the bars and I was using my full height advantage to loom over him.

“Get...get away from me!” he rasped fearfully. Like most villains and school yard bullies, Tirek wasn't much of a fighter unless he had an unfair advantage. And he didn’t seem to like the shoe being on the other foot. I showed him no mercy as I leaned in close.

“And I said,” I went on, leaning down, and wrapping a hand around his scrawny neck. “’You touch then, and I’ll snap your neck’. So what do you think I’m here to do?” Tirek was now deeply frightened.

“I...I never touched your foals!” he wailed desperately. “I wasn’t even the one stealing their magic, it was that wretched Cozy Glow doing it. I never even got out of my cell! I never laid a finger on either of them!”

And with that, with the most evil centaur in the land about to wet himself from fear, I relented, my hand stopping just a hair’s breadth away from his neck. Standing back up to my full height, I backed off a little.

“Well, that is true,” I admitted, my tone now becoming a little more understanding.” You didn’t hurt them yourself. And, while I have no doubt you intended to kill me too at some point, revenge is not really an idea we promote on my planet.”

I turned away for the briefest moment as I said that. If he’d kept quiet, I might have let things lie. But Tirek is an egotistical maniac amongst other things, and he always has to have the last word.

“Ha, I knew it!” he declared with sudden confidence as he sensed what he thought was weakness. “You humans claim to be different from ponies, but you’re just like them; soft and weak and...”

Rounding on him, I quickly closed the distance between us and grabbed Tirek roughly with both hands. He was fairly light due to his emaciated state, so it wasn’t too much of a chore to lift him up onto his hind legs, making the two of us roughly equal in height, our faces mere inches apart. And due to his unusual body shape, he had no leverage to use against me. I leaned in close and said;

“But we’re not on my planet, are we?” Tirek’s eye went wide as he realised what was about to happen.

And with that, I pulled my one leg back and kicked as if I was trying to score a penalty in the World Cup final. Only I was aiming for quite a different ball, or balls. Turns out centaurs also don’t like being punted in the wedding vegetables.

Tirek let out a strangled cry of pain, now noticeably higher in pitch than before, and once I released him from my grip, he promptly collapsed to the floor.

Unfortunately for him, I was only just getting started. Time to fall back on old habits.

As he collapsed onto his hide on the cell floor, I took the opportunity to get another couple of kicks in around the stomach. His four legs had cured up into something approximate to the foetal position, and he was smart enough to try and protect his head, but not his gut. That knocked the wind out of him even more. Vainly, he tried to get up to put up some sort of fight or defence, but I kept on him, kicking him back down again a few times.

After that, I grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him up. Bending down slightly, I switched from kicking to punching, or rather, pummelling. I got a few good strikes in on the face. A little bit harder and I’d probably fetched out a couple of teeth or done some damage to his orbital bone.

Eventually, I let up on my unprovoked assault, and let him go. He crumpled back to the floor with a low groan of pain. Blood was streaming from his nose and mouth, and he was gonna have more than a few bruises in another couple of hours. I probably would too. My right hand hurt like a bastard; more than once I’d connected with his stupid nose ring. I figured my hand would be sore for a day or so. Getting on my knees, I grabbed his jaw in my free hand and forced him to look at me.

“Tirek,” I snarled. “I once kicked a man to death for the sake of a twenty pound bet. You do anything to my children, and by God, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for me to kill you.”

With that, I released him and turned to go. Pausing, I turned around and gave him one more firm kick for good measure. I wasn’t lying either. Back in the mid-70’s, I had indeed kicked a poor soul to death over twenty quid. He was a bookie, dodgy as all hell, but he had himself a nice little side business. I’d had some free time, so me and some friends had put some money on the nags. Turned out though, he was in cahoots with people at the track, fixing the odds to net himself a nice little profit. The fact that he had moved up to Belfast from the Republic was just an excuse. We left his body in a ditch somewhere in County Down for the RUC to find. Only time I killed someone due to greed, rather than sectarianism.

Walking out of his cell, I locked the door behind me. He was battered six ways from Sunday, but he’d live. Perhaps now he’d be in a more talkative mood.

I got a bit of information out of him. What the spell was, how he’d gotten in contact with Cozy, as well as a few other interesting details. It seemed he and the little filly had ‘met’ before she ever came to Twilight’s school. She was a plant from minute one. It certainly explained both her odd behaviour and why she seemed to eager to ingratiate herself with Twilight. It gave her the access she needed to all the artifacts for Tirek’s plan.

Still, Tirek was of little interest to me. Now that I’d had a chance to take out my frustrations on him, I had bigger fish to fry. Or smaller, now that I think about it.

Stepping back through the portal, I found myself once again back in my office. There’s two ways to get into Tartarus. Either you can go in through the big double doors that need magical artifacts to open, doors I might add, which close behind you, or you can do what I did and open up a portal to the place.

Well, I say I, as a human I have no magic. Luckily for me, I have a best friend who also hates Tirek’s guts, and had absolutely no qualms in getting me in there to give him a good kicking. Discord smiled as he snapped his talons, closing the portal behind me as I stepped through.

“I suppose so,” I replied with a nod. “I got a bit out of him. And I certainly don’t think he’ll be stupid enough to try anything like that again. That boy’s fresh out of ideas. He’s realised that he’s stuck for the rest of his days in a box. Hopefully that little chit chat will convince him it isn’t a good idea to try anything else.”

“Tirek is many things, Roger,” Discord replied. “But he’s not an idiot. Well, not entirely at least. He may well continue to plot and scheme, and if I were you, I’d keep an eye on him.”

“Just call if you need me,” Discord replied. “Although I’m sure Tia or Lulu would be happy to help too.” I frowned to myself.

“Eh, I think it might be best to keep this between us for the moment,” I replied. “Celestia certainly wouldn’t approve of what I just did, justified or not. And you know she put a stop to her old idea of me being being a sort of security guard for that place after Starlight was captured.”

“I know she was more worried about Sombra getting into your head than anything else,” Discord countered.

“Bits to bridles says he’s going to try something else at some point,” I replied. “The guy just doesn’t know when to give up. After all, whatever else you might say, he came pretty close thanks to that filly Cozy.” Discord shook his head.

“I’ve got to admit, that was a new one, even for me,” he replied. “I never suspected the sickeningly cute filly for even a second.” I shook my head as I sat down at my desk and pulled out her case file.

“Ah, I should have figured something was off,” I said ruefully. “From the moment I met her she rubbed me the wrong way. She was too nice, too cute, even by pony standards.”

“No sense beating yourself up, old friend,” Discord replied. “I don’t think anypony suspected just what she was capable of. What are you going to do with her anyway?”

That was the million bit question, wasn’t it? What do you do with an irredeemable nine year old foal, who shows all the classic signs of being a sociopath? She was below the age of criminal responsibility first of all. While aware of her actions and their consequences, in the eyes of the law, she was not capable of understanding the concept of law and order for another year. She technically couldn’t be convicted. But at the same time, she had committed treason, kidnapping, illegal use of outlawed magic, and tried to, you know, overthrow the government and everything.

The big problem though was what set her apart from former villains like Starlight or Discord. They could be reformed. But Cozy had, supposedly, seen the error of her ways several times. She’d been shown the path to good, light, and harmony, and each time she’d discarded it. The Crusaders had tried to help her, the other students had tried to help her, and Twilight and the others had tried. She just had this serious mix up. In her mind, friendship wasn’t magic, it was power; a tool to manipulate others.

The question on everypony’s lips then, was how she came to this conclusion. How did a young filly get so twisted and, dare I say it, evil? That was what I was going to find out. Her conviction was a matter of course, brought on by royal decree of Celestia herself. Given Cozy’s past behaviour, she was taking no chances with reformation this time. But I wanted to know what had gone wrong and where.

So I was going to go and talk to her. Think of it like those behavioural science interviews the FBI did back in the 70’s. I was going to try and understand how Cozy went from just another filly, to one of the most dangerous ponies in Equestria. Somewhere along the line, somepony had to have missed something.

I suppose I’m a little biassed here. Back on Earth, when I was doing my PhD in Law, my dissertation subject was on juvenile offenders, and how early life treatment could potentially lead to a life of crime. Cozy might be nuts now, but I wanted, and hoped to see, if there was a way to undo the damage, or at least identify how it happened.

So, leaving Discord in my office, I set off for the dungeons in the castle’s lower levels.

Cozy was under heavy guard downstairs, more so than any prisoner I’d ever seen in there. The guards were all stationed outside, and under strict orders not to say a word to her or engage her in conversation in any way. She might not have had magic like unicorns, but the filly was clearly a gifted manipulator. All it would take was one slip up, one error of judgement, and she might just get out.

She might only have been a child, but I hadn’t felt this unsettled since I went to speak with Sombra, back when Starlight was still one of the bad guys. The two would probably get along, or kill each other, given how much they had in common. This was like interviewing the two kids from the Bulger murder back home. I was about to go and speak with a little child who, according to the head shrinker had no moral compass, was incapable of empathy or forming any real relationships. A sociopath, to use the correct term. She had no capacity for remorse and operated purely on self interest. But in contrast to psychopaths like Sombra, she was fairly disorganised and prone to violent outbursts. That was how she’d exposed herself in the end; she panicked.

I steeled myself as I had the guard unlock the door. Stepping inside the interview room, the door was just as quickly shut and locked behind me.

The room was a simple affair; plain walls, a single light overhead, a table and two chairs, on one of which sat Cozy.

She was smiling. She was sitting there, looking right at me, and smiling. It seemed to genuine too; not a forced smile to hide anger to fake emotion. She was genuinely smiling at me. I felt like throwing up. She was reading me as much as I was reading her though, so I steeled myself and sat down.

“Hello, Cozy,” I said. “My name is Mr. Owen. I’m Princess Celestia’s legal advisor.”

“I remember you, Mr. Owen,” Cozy replied sweetly. “You came to the school after I stole those course materials on Friendship Studies.” So it was her after all. Still, I was surprised she remembered me.

“I want to talk to you about what you did,” I went on. Cozy shrugged her shoulders.

“I already told everypony everything I know,” she replied. “I told them about Tirek, and how he tricked me; made me think all sorts of mean things about friendship. I just need somepony to help me learn from my mistakes. Only nopony here will talk to me.” She put on a puppy dog expression.

She was good, I’ll give her that. But it was too late in the day to be trying anything like that. She was more than likely just testing me. This was going to be hard.

Her reaction was instantaneous. Her demeanour changed from scared little filly to angry ball of evil. Her eyes went from cute and innocent, to glaring daggers at me. She snarled and barred her teeth. I gave her nothing in response.

“You knew what you were doing. You knew it was wrong. You even got help from some of the best experts on friendship in Equestria when they saw what was going on. And you ignored them.”

“Friendship isn’t magic, it’s power,” she replied. “You don’t share power with other ponies.”

“Why do you want power, Cozy?” It was a little odd for a nine year old filly to want to take over Equestria after all.

“Because then I can do what I want,” she answered coldly. “And nopony can stop me.”

Okay, so you had the classic narcissism there. She was deeply egotistical too. Both classic signs of what we now call anti-social personality disorder. I decided to work through a mental checklist, to confirm what I already feared was the case.

“How do you think that made other ponies feel?” I prodded. “What do you think it was like to suddenly lose their magic?” Cozy shrugged indifferently.

And there was your lack of empathy or remorse. She couldn’t put herself in anypony else’s shoes. She could only ever see things from her point of view. Hence why she’d struggle with the basic concepts of friendship, since it relies on our ability to empathise with others. She could understand right and wrong, but unlike other ponies, she could just ignore the concepts. Without empathy, she had no moral compass. She operated purely on self-interest. It also explained her relationship with truth.

Another symptom was heightened aggression. Sociopaths, in contrast to psychopaths, tended to be more disorganised. When things went wrong, they’d typically lose their temper, as Cozy had. This short temper was also a hair trigger for violence. Time to push her buttons.

“Don’t care. Now that sums up my opinion of you nicely,” I replied coldly. Cozy sneered at me. “I’ve come across plenty of whack jobs in my time here, including a few who wanted to take over the world. They were always nuts, but you Cozy, you’re special.” I let out a laugh.

“I mean, getting rid of all the magic, and then you somehow crown yourself empress. How was that gonna work? What, you think ponies all over were just going to submit to a stupid little child like you? What were you thinking? Seriously, how dumb are you, Cozy? Is that why you started going to that school, because all the others kicked you out? Maybe we should do an IQ test, see just how dumb you really are.”

That was enough for Cozy. With an angry scream, she launched herself at me. The hoofcuffs under the desk quickly caught her, of course. But my poking had the desired effect. She was livid.

“I’m stupid?!” she screamed at me, still clawing at the air trying to grab me. “You didn’t figure me out for months! Nopony did! I tricked all those stupid ponies and took all the magic in the world! Me! On my own! If it wasn’t for that stupid Tree thing stopping me, I’d have won! If anypony’s stupid, it’s you!”

With that, she calmed down again, her breaths coming in ragged. There was the sociopath. Underneath all the cuteness was something truly evil. It also served as a very nice little confession for her trial a couple of days later.

The meeting also changed my opinion of her markedly. I’d gone in expecting something along the lines of a cult follower. Somepony who’d been brainwashed by Tirek’s nonsense. But this filly hadn’t been brainwashed at all. They were more like kindred spirits. They both had the same world view, independent of one another. Cozy was just as guilty as Tirek was.

And that just plain old sucked. Cozy became Equestria’s first juvenile psychopath diagnosis.

I delivered my report to Celestia, reinforcing what we, sadly, already knew. Cozy was guilty and competent to stand trial. She was sick, yes, but there was no cure. There would be no reformation for her, no hope of redemption. There was only one place for her; Tartarus. Celestia was heartbroken when she signed the order.

The hardest part though had to be telling her parents. I’ve met the parents of child offenders before, both here and back on Earth. It’s never a pleasant experience. Usually, you can see the pattern repeating itself. A kid gets arrested for stealing and doing drugs. He’s never had a job and has no aspirations. Just like his dad, who’s been in and out of prison his whole life. He’s never held a job, and lives off the dole. Just like his dad. You’d see the same cycle generation after generation.

I don’t know what I was expecting meeting Cozy’s parents. I’d hoped that there would be some explanation. Maybe they had a rough marriage, maybe a difficult life. I found myself hoping that her father was being inappropriate with her; anything that would let me point and say ‘here’s what caused it’. I just wanted an explanation as to why a normal little filly turned out the way Cozy had.

But no answer was forthcoming. They were just as confused as we were by her actions. They told us that she’d had some problems from a young age, but they’d hoped sending her to Twilight’s school would help her. Instead it had damned her. We checked them very carefully. They were good parents. They’d done everything right. There was no abuse, no mistreatment, nothing that would cause sociopathic symptoms to manifest in the way they had.

We were faced with an unpleasant truth; she’d always been this way. I interviewed the two of them at length, and slowly, bits and pieces started to tumble out. Cozy had always been different. She had trouble playing with other children. She’d hurt one little colt quite seriously while playing, and thought nothing of it. Her mother had caught her more than once hurting small animals, birds, rabbits and bugs. And then there was the little puppy they’d adopted. They only had it for three weeks when it ‘died’.

Cozy met what we used to call the Dark Triad; three key signs of future violent behaviour; cruelty to animals, bed wetting beyond the age of five, and fire starting. I suppose some of the blame should rest with the parents but...you prepare all you want as a parent, nothing prepares you to confront the idea that your child may be a monster, incapable of love, or remorse.

The matter was hard on everypony. Celestia, while she was the one who made the call to condemn Cozy to Tartarus, was still deeply broken up about it. At the end of the day, we were putting a child, not yet ten years old, in jail for life. She couldn’t even bring herself to go down there, Luna had to do it.

I too was struggling with the mental toll of what had happened. Cops say there’s two cases you remember; the case that makes you, and the case that breaks you. This was the latter. The case that keeps you up at night, that other folks talk about when you walk by, the case you never, ever discuss.

Trying to find some clarity, I made a rather irrational decision. I decided to go and talk to the only other psychopath I knew.

I wouldn’t call Sombra a friend. In fact he’s probably much better suited to the title of enemy. I first met him a few years ago now, back when Starlight Glimmer first came on my radar as a dangerous foe.

Now I, like all ponies, including Bones, was under the impression that he was dead; blasted into atoms by the light of the Crystal Heart. But apparently, the heart, like the Elements, cannot outright kill something. Sombra was blown apart, but a small part of him, the tip of his peculiar fang shaped horn, to be precise, survived. It went flying off into the wild blue yonder, landing somewhere far outside the Crystal Empire in the icy tundra of the Frozen North.

And it was there that the mad ex-king had slowly begun to regenerate himself. It would have taken decades, even centuries, and more than a good portion of his magic to bring himself back, but it was possible. However, before he could do that, Tirek got loose. When he was defeated by Twilight and the others, a magical wave was sent all across Equestria. It redistributed all the stolen magic. But it also picked up on Sombra and whisked him off to Tartarus. It also partially regenerated him, giving him physical form once more, but with very limited magic.

It was not long after that I’d been introduced to him. Since my job back then had been to keep an eye out for escapees, Sombra was certainly somepony to watch. He’d also been quite useful though in tracking down Starlight. The two of us ended up in quite the war of nerves. Sombra actually tried to use Starlight’s temporal meddling to get free from his prison. That was all undone though when the timeline was restored. And he was once again a prisoner, only now I knew his game.

After that I’d left him there. He wrote me from time to time, including an unsettling Hearth’s Warming card. It was like a pony version of Ed Kemper or something. We had cultivated this odd sort of friendship. We wanted each other dead, but we each had a quiet respect for one another. I’d been to see him a few times since then, but he had been mostly lethargic and not as talkative as he once was. But now, well, if anypony could help explain Cozy, it was him.

Luna was kind enough to create a portal for me this time. She’d been down to Tartarus not too long ago to deliver Cozy to her new cell. I was actually a little uneasy about that. She’d be right next to Tirek, close enough for the two of them to talk. But, what with Celestia’s recent, dare I say purge, of dangerous creatures, Tartarus was getting rather full. Still, they were both in a cage, and this time we were making sure there was no way they could develop any more ‘pen pals’.

The night princess and I made our way along the same route I had taken previously. Instead of following the path to Tirek’s little island though, we bore right into a small cavern of sorts. In contrast to Tirek’s cage, Sombra’s cell was built into the rock face itself, making escape that much more difficult. The whole place had dampening spells on it to prevent him from using his magic to change into his shadowy form and slip through the bars.

Rounding the corner, Luna and I came into the antechamber that let visitors view Sombra’s cell. Normally, the dark unicorn would be waiting for me, having heard my footsteps with those sensitive ears of his. This time though, he wasn’t. And there was one simple reason for that.

My blood ran cold when I saw the empty cell. Luna checked around carefully to try and locate how or why. The answer soon came to her. When Cozy and Tirek drained all the magic, including magic from artifacts, the spells holding Sombra at bay stopped working. But by the same token, Tartarus was the only thing keeping Sombra alive. Left to his own devices, he would still need to regenerate himself. Stepping out of his cell would be tantamount to suicide.

Maybe that explains why he left a note. It was addressed to me and ran in this way.

I assume, if you are reading this, that you have come to seek my counsel on the matter of young Cozy.

I’ve followed with great interest the course of her disgrace and subsequent public shaming. My own never bothered me; apart from the inconvenience of being incarcerated. But I would image such a young child lacks perspective. In our previous discussions, and from what I gleamed from your days as an avant garde freedom fighter, it is apparent that, like dear Luna, the notion of redemption figures largely in your value system. I think that your inability to reform what you hoped was an innocent child saddened you, because it represents yet another weight to lay on the scales tipping against your new life.

Do you imagine it in such a way, I wonder? Is there indeed such a balance? Can you one day undo everything you did to all those innocent people through justice and the Equestrian way? Is that what is worst about poor Cozy? The notion that someone may be born bad, and no matter much they might want to, will always be so? Do you worry the same applies to you, Mr. Rowain?

By the way, I couldn’t help but notice that old Starswirl’s little trinket seems to have taken an interest in me, almost as much as it did with poor Stygian and the once mad Starlight. Is this coincidence, or was it that clever little tree that got you to come down here to look for me? Either way, it is an excellent turn of events. Magic or not, it is time I think to end my sabbatical and return to public life.

I imagine you standing in my old cell, this letter in hand, an astonished look on your face. Is that accurate? Please do tell me, my dear adversary.

PS – Now that you know I have broken from my bonds, I have no doubt that you will set yourself the task of recapturing me. Your job is to once again craft my doom. So I’m not sure how well I should wish you. But I know we’re going to have a lot of fun.

Luna and I read and reread the letter in horror. It actually took a bit of work given Sombra’s love for cursive. Still, he was out. From what I understood of magic, there was only one place he could be; the Ether. Somewhat similar to the Void, it was the place where all lost spirits end up, particularity as Sombra had now ‘died’ twice. Even he couldn’t bring himself back from that. He was as dead as Julius Caesar. So why this taunt?

Further Tales From Day Court

by Blade Star

Chapter 22 - Sociopaths