In the early hours of Tuesday morning, right before sunrise, a blue coloured carriage pulled by the night guards of princess Luna landed in front of the Ponyville hospital. The aforementioned princess stepped out of the carriage. She had grown back to her original size and had a mane that flowed much like her sister's, and honestly, she would have looked just as beautiful if it weren't for the grim expression on her face.
It had been ages since the world had seen a case like this and princess Luna intended to solve it without bloodshed. Her sister had advised against it and told her that all agents were dangerous things who only deserved death. Luna wasn't convinced at all, especially when said 'dangerous thing' was a child, a scared child.
Her visit was under the pretense of wanting to help the child with her terrible nightmares and help identify her but she had come to free the child from the eldritch monster that enslaved her.
The princess walked through the hospital, a nurse leading her and her guards to the room where the filly was. It didn't take long until they were there at the door to the poor filly's room.
"I've woken her up for the visit and explained her that you're here to help with her nightmares but she may still be nervous in your presence, princess," the nurse said as the princess moved to open the door. The princess nodded and slowly opened the door.
Inside, it was dark with the lights being off. The window was open and the curtains were pulled back, letting in a breeze and some moonlight. The pipe that should have connected an IV fluid bag to the filly was cut and the filly was nowhere to be seen.
"She's... gone," the nurse said, stating the obvious but Luna couldn't blame her. It wasn't everyday that fillies ran away from the hospital.
The princess had a new problem now, however: the filly had disappeared.
"Find her and bring her back," Luna gave the order to her guards, who then leapt into action. Luna hoped that the filly wouldn't be the murderous scum that Celestia warned her of.
'Anonymous' walked down the moonlit path, planning on how she would murder her master's enemy.
A rock to the head would be quick but rather painless, and in her mind, that was unacceptable for any enemy of her master.
Stabbing the eyes would be far more painful, and she could then strangle the blinded enemy, making them suffer as they die. It would be an appropriate way to die for scum like that. Plus, she had something to stab eyes with: the needle the ponies at hospital had jammed in her right foreleg to pump fluids into her. It had been a pain to chew through the pipe that connected her to the IV bag but it wouldn't be as hard to pull out the needle.
She stopped and tried using her hooves to pull out the needle but she could not gather enough strength in her pathetic limb to pull it out. Failure. She tried focusing her magic in her horn but her horn just gave off a few pathetic sparks. More failure. She reached down to the end of the pipe that was still attached to the needle and bit down on it slowly with fear in her mind. It would pain this way but she deserved the pain for her precious failures, for every failure was an offense against master.
She pulled her head back as far as she could, yanking the pipe, and the needle came out. So did a lot of blood and a short scream of pain.
Anonymous shut up, cursing herself for screaming and the blasted princess of the night for deciding to visit her.
Her enemy had been scheduled to visit her late in the day, around afternoon because Anonymous had spoken to no-one after her first interaction with the fat nurse, and that would have been such an easy kill with the enemy walking into the the beast's den quite literally. But no, the princess just had to ruin everything.
Thankfully, master had come and told her to run away before the princess came and where the enemy was. Master has also told it that the princesses were enemies and that she was free to go after them after killing master's first enemy. She would probably do that.
She held the needle in her left foreleg and continued on her path, slower than before and with a trail of blood behind her. The forest became thicker around the path once she walked past the crossroads and the increased tree cover made it rather dark, but she continued walking, ignoring whatever fear she felt.
Several minutes of walking, she reached her destination. It was a plain but ominous looking house. It blended in well with the forest thanks to its dark colours, and Anonymous couldn't help but feel as though it was watching her like a predator would watch its prey.
She shook her head, clearing away the silly though. What was so scary about it? Nothing, that's what. It was just dark and she was a coward and a fool with far too much imagination. She had work to do and it would be done.
She walked up to the door, and looked around on the ground in front of it. The key would be there, her master had told her, under some rock. She found it quickly and put it into the door's lock.
Immediately, the forest around her silenced, making her pause. An apex predator must have been close by. She turned the key and the door swung open. She let herself in and closed the door behind her as quietly as she could but unfortunately, the door creaked loudly as she closed it.
Anonymous hoped that she hadn't woken up her enemy with the sound.
She took a step forward and the floor creaked loudly beneath it. She took another, trying to be careful this time about not making noise but the floor creaked louder. She stopped and swiveled her ears around, trying to hear if she had woken up her target but she heard no sound and felt as though the sound around her had been muted.
She took a few more steps forward to the stairs and with each step, the floor creaked louder and she stopped several times to hear if something had moved upstairs.
Suddenly, all her fur stood on its end and she felt as if something was right behind her.
She turned around, her needle raised to stab whatever she saw. Behind her was her target. She towered over Anonymous and looked like a shadow in the dark hallway. She raised a hoof and Anonymous instinctively cowered, her fear beating her need to please her master for a second. Just a second.
Anonymous tried to move her hoof with the needle to stab her target but her target had taken hold of it and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't free herself. Her target charged up her horn, making Anonymous try harder. She stretched out her wings desire one being hurt from two days ago and tried taking to the air to free herself but her target was quick and had already used her free hoof to grab onto one of her wings, stopping her from flying.
The whole murder had gone south. Anonymous tried to free herself from the hold of her target but found herself too weak to do anything. She might have been able to do damage if she had the element of surprise but clearly, she didn't.
The target charged up her horn once again and Anonymous found that her only weapon, the needle, was pulled away from her and thrown away. Anonymous tried kicking and flailing her hooves but it didn't help her much. The target charged up her horn, taking longer this time. Was she charging up a spell that would kill her?
Anonymous didn't want to die. She tried even harder to get away from the target, getting a few punches on her but ultimately, she couldn't free herself. The target brought her horn close to Anonymous's head and the next thing Anonymous knows is that the world is dark.
I looked down at the filly as I let go of her and slowly lay her on the floor. She had somehow managed to make the floor creak, and then not notice me coming up behind her until the last moment and even then, she hadn't been able to put up much of a fight. I had put her to sleep with a knock-out spell that Voth had given me and it had taken effect immediately.
"NOW CAST THE SPELL YOU HAD CAST ON NIGHTMARE MOON," Voth instructed to me. I did as he said, letting him continue, "I WILL RETURN AFTER FREEING THE CHILD FROM THE MASTER MASTER IF THE CHILD WAKES UP BEFORE I RETURN ASSUME THAT SHE IS STILL UNDER THEIR INFLUENCE AND PUT HER BACK TO SLEEP."
Voth was gone after that, letting me breathe a sigh of relief. It wouldn't be long till Voth was done with the hard part and back with good news.
I walked into the kitchen, turning on the lights in the hall and the kitchen as I did, to get a first aid kit that I had gotten yesterday after my cough had subsided. The filly was bleeding at her right arm and seeing how she was armed with a IV needle with part of a pipe attached, I guessed that she had ripped the needle out of her arm. I cleaned off the blood with a tissue and some antiseptic liquid and wrapped a bandage around the wound, stopping the bleeding. There was still blood on the floor that I'd have to clean.
In that much, Voth was back. "THE CHILD IS FREED NOW," he announced the good news. "HOWEVER, THERE REMAIN ISSUES."
'What issues?' I asked in my mind knowing that Voth could hear my thoughts.
"FIRST THE CHILD WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET THE NIGHT PRINCESS SOME TIME BACK AND THE PRINCESS KNOWS THAT THE CHILD IS AN AGENT," Voth started, giving out what I hoped to be the worst news first. "THE PRINCESS WILL HAVE GUARDS SEARCHING FOR THE CHILD SO YOU SHOULD PROBABLY TAKE HER BACK TO THE HOSPITAL TO AVOID ANY SUSPICION
I WILL REPLACE THE CHILD'S MEMORIES SO THAT SHE SAYS HER GOAL IN THIS WORLD WAS TO KILL ANYONE SHE SAW AND NOT TO ASSASSINATE ANOTHER AGENT."
'So, I just have to act dumb. Got that. Everything else is fine?'
"YES EVERYTHING ELSE IS FINE."
The filly on the floor groaned, making me look down at her. She sat up straight, holding her head as she did. She opened her eyes and froze when she saw me, making me a bit concerned.
'Is she alright?'
"SHE MAY BE DISTRESSED RIGHT NOW SINCE SHE CAN NOW PROPERLY COMPREHEND WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HER," Voth said, "SHE WAS RIPPED OUT FROM HER WORLD AND PUT IN A NEW ONE AND THAT ALONE COULD MAKE HER DEPRESSED
THAT COMBINED WITH THE FACT THAT SHE WAS SENT TO MURDER SOMEONE AND HOW HER MASTER REMOVED SOME OF HER MEMORIES PERMANENTLY AND THEN RESTRUCTURED HER MIND SO THAT SHE WORSHIPS HIM IS PROBABLY MAKING HER REACT LIKE THAT."
Well, that sucked.
The filly snuck a look to the main door as she continued staring at me with fear. I had a feeling that she was scared of me and wanted to run.
"Hey, are you feeling fine?" I asked her, sounding as nice as I could. The filly had her ears pinned down before I even began, as if she expected me to shout at her. However, after I was done, she looked at me with confusion.
She looked like she wanted to say something to me, probably ask me why I was being nice despite her attempt at my life, or maybe she wanted to say sorry. She looked down at the ground in thought, her ears slowly drooping. Was she going to cry?
Tears fell down onto the floor and before I knew it, the filly was crying. The weight of being ripped from wherever she came from and then being enslaved and dropped into another world by an eldritch monster to kill someone was too much for her. I pulled the filly into a hug, where she continued crying. I pat her head and back and let her cry, doing the least I could to help her through what was probably the worst day of her life.
"What's your name?" I asked her after crying died down somewhat. She didn't answer immediately though. I loved down at her and saw how troubled she looked.
"I- I don't know," she responded sadly. "It had a 'n' and a 'e' in it, I think. It's NOT Anonymous but I think it was similar in some way."
"Hmm, do you want me to guess so that you can remember?" I asked her, thinking that I might cheer her up. She nodded her head in agreement, not looking really happy.
'Voth, can you find out her name?'
"NO THAT MEMORY HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM HER MIND IT WAS SIMILAR TO YOURS THOUGH."
It seemed that I actually had to guess.
Princess Luna flew close to the ground, two lunar guards right behind her. They followed a trail of blood on a path into the forest, all hoping that the filly hadn't gotten far, while the princess also hoped that the filly hadn't hurt somepony. They flew past a crossroads and continued following the path till they reached a house.
There was a light on inside and that illuminated the path in front of the house, letting the ponies see that the trail of blood went into the house.
Luna stepped up to the door and tried opening it, only to find it locked. However, she did hear some noise inside. The door was unlocked with a click and it opened a little, letting Luna look inside.
There was a familiar mare sitting in the hallway beyond the door but that was not what Luna was focused on. She was focused on the green filly crying in the mare's arms. Luna raised a hoof, signalling her guards to stay outside and guard while she went inside and closed the door behind her.
One inside, she quietly say down on the ground next to the mare, and asked, "How is she?"
The mare, who didn't seem to be intimidated by the princess in any way, just shrugged as she looked down at the crying filly and answered, "Physically, she's okay. Can't say the same about anything else."
"Anonymous," Luna said a bit forcefully, making the filly stop crying and look at her. It pained Luna that she couldn't just pull the fully into a hug and tell her that everything was going to be fine but she had to ask the filly an important question. "Do you hear someone in your head?"
The filly didn't answer her and just turned back to the unicorn mare and buried her face in her chest. It took a second for Luna to realise that the filly was scared of her and when she did realise, she was pained greatly. At least, she could tell that the filly wasn't under the control of the eldritch since they would always suppress fear in their agents.
Luna still had a duty to do, however. She cast a sleep spell on the filly and in a minute, she was asleep.
"I'll have to take her away since she was taken control of by a malevolent magical entity," Luna said to the unicorn, both lying and telling the truth since the knowledge of the existence of the eldritch was not the unicorn's business. The unicorn nodded in understanding.
"I know you," Luna continued, changing the subject of their conversation since she didn't want to disturb the sleeping filly yet. "I healed your ears after... that night, and you were the only other one to be kind to her that day. What is your name?"
"Anya Khan, princess," the unicorn, Anya, responded. Luna had heard that name before.
"And tell me this, Anya. Did she try attacking you?" Luna asked as she gestured to the filly.
"Yeah, she tried attacking me with a needle that I think she ripped out from her arm," Anya responded, pointing to a bloody needle in the corner next to the door and then to a bandaged wound on the filly's right foreleg. "I used a knockout spell on her after disarming her and she's just been miserable since she woke up."
Well, that was interesting. She'd have to investigate that later.
"Did she tell you her name?"
"No, she doesn't remember it. We tried guessing her name to cheer her up but didn't come up with anything. She did like 'Nemo' though and asked me to call her that."
Luna looked down at the filly. The poor thing didn't even know her name. At least, she had found one she liked.
"It is time for me to go," Luna said as she stood up. Anya nodded and let go of the filly, who was covered in a blue aura as Luna picked her up in her magic. Luna placed her on her back, balancing her between her bat wings so that the filly wouldn't fall off during the flight to the hospital.
She turned back to Anya one last time as she opened the door to leave, and said, "You are a kind one. I thank you for taking care of the filly. I wish you a good day."
Anya nodded, and waved goodbye to the princess.
After that, Luna had flew back to the hospital with the filly. There, the filly was put back in her room to continue healing her wing and whatever injuries she sustained today.
Luna, on the other hand, was going back to Canterlot and she had a lot to tell her sister.