I am beyond boredom at this point. Even my time at the Grand Galloping Gala wasn't this bad, and I had to deal with a bunch of snooty nobles; emphasis on snooty.

It had been about three months since that day. By now, I had actually gotten used to my two new 'roommates'. And, as is custom with anyone else stuck rooming with other people for extended periods of time, I had even gotten to know them by just a tiny bit. Like, for instance, their reasons for being here in the first place.

Apparently, they were both classified among 'Equestria's worst villains'. I'm not sure what the ponies here thought of a villain to be, but these two couldn't have been it.

Chrysalis, the fanged, green maned, insect-like pony known as a changeling, was the queen of her own hive before all this. She and her drones would go out, gather food, come back, and feed. It wasn't exactly the best life, but it worked for them. During a particularly bad summer though she and her hive had begun to run low on available sources of love, which I had learned that changelings fed of off. I was a little bothered by the fact that she fed on the emotions of others, but I wasn't really in a position to judge was I? There are plenty of terrible therapists back home that would have done the same.

Anyway, it was during this time that Chrysalis had gotten word of some useful information from one of her undercover agents. One of Equestria's three princesses--side note, I now know there are actually three princesses in Equestria--was going to get married to the captain of the royal guard. Seeing the opportunity, she used her ability to change her form and kidnapped the princess, taking her place as the bride and managing to obtain enough love to feed her and her hive for generations. Unfortunately for her, she ended up overextending herself, trying for not only the capture of this poor sap's heart, but of all of Canterlot. She was ambitious, I'd give her that. Still over the top though.

She ended up getting pushed, well, more like blasted, out of Canterlot along with her entire hive. Having used most of the love she had gathered to combat Princess Celestia during the invasion, her hive barely lasted a month in the Everfree forest, starving to death one by one. Soon, royal guards found her wandering the forest nearby Ponyville and had no trouble taking her in. Especially since she herself had been near starvation.

My other cell mate I had actually learned about before from Zecora. Nightmare Moon, or at least what remained of her. She was the embodiment of all the sadness and anger that Princess Luna felt when she had grown to believe that her subjects didn't care for the night. Soon, Nightmare Moon took over and tried to plunge the world into eternal night. Naturally, she was stopped. At first, she was banished to the moon by her 'sister' Celestia. More recently though, she was defeated by a group of ponies called 'The elements of harmony'. Nightmare Moon was separated from Princess Luna, drained of all power and forced to live in the shadows. Literally. All that was left of her was a formless shadow. It was this very shadow that I had as a fellow roommate, though I couldn't tell in such a dark room.

Celestia found her during her inspection of the old castle in the Everfree forest and had her locked away... Somehow. Still, I couldn't help but sympathize with her. Sure, she had gone a bit far, but after having gone so long while thinking that nobody appreciated you, I'd probably be angry too. Probably not "end the world" angry, but passion is a hell of a thing.

Okay, just putting this out there, but in hindsight I probably just felt more inclined to understand their perspectives because I'd been stuck in the same room with them for so long. I don’t think I can be blamed for that, right?

… Alright, stop looking at me like that, I’ll get back to the story. I didn’t ramble *that* much in our first session.

Suddenly, the sound of metal rasping against metal broke me out of my thoughts. I looked to my left, noticing a small row of light near the floor. Two metal trays of food were slid into the room before the metal opening once again slid to a close.

This had always been how the guards passed us food, and it was the closest thing I could get to being outside, seeing actual light. It was sad, it was pathetic, but it was true.

I stood from my 'seat' and made my way over to the two trays. It was weird but after having been in complete darkness for as long as I had been, the entire room seemed clear to me. It didnt seem dark, just dimly lit, for a lack of better words. As I picked up the two metal trays, I turned to look to my "roommates".

Chrysalis was sleeping, as usual. As for Nightmare Moon, I had to give it a second or two. Or 30.

"Art thou looking for me?" I flinched when her voice popped into my head again. I had never gotten used to whenever she would do that in the past few months so she scared more times than not.

"Yeah. I guess I am." I whispered, trying my best not to wake up Chrysalis. Even back then, she would get pretty cranky if someone woke her up. And I’d avoided enough near skewering from her horn to notice, thankfully.

Speaking of, I couldn’t help but to glance over at the lump that was said changeling, their chest rising and falling in a slow, deliberate, yet shallow manner.

"How's she holding up today?" I whispered into the dark room.

Being starved of love, Chrysalis had to start eating regular food just to survive. The problem with that though is that she was still being deprived of an essential nutrient that changelings could only get from love. Kinda like how humans could technically get along just fine eating only fruits and vegetables, but without a stable source of iron, they’d start to suffer all kinds of health issues.

An issue I had been far too aware of in my time in Equestria.

So suffice to say, shapeshifting and magic had become an absolute must not for her, if she wanted to survive for long that is.

My whispers went unanswered for a time, so I assumed that Nightmare Moon was checking on Chrysalis rather than trying to beam her response into my head. She had one heck of a talent for looking people over despite not having a body herself.

I stayed where I was, both of the metal trays at hand, as I waited for Nightmare Moon to return. For a moment, I started doing all of this mental prep-work. Trying to get myself all ready and able for when Nightmare Moon would eventually pop back into my head, telling myself that I wouldn’t get startled this time around.

"She seems weaker than usual."

It scared the hell out of me anyways.

I nodded my head as I barely stopped myself from flinching at her voice again before—totally not at all forcibly—nonchalantly pouring half of my food into Chrysalis' tray. It slicked and squished and… cracked? Look, it made gross noises. But, I was able to get a satisfactory amount in, and from there I just moved back against the wall and sat down.

"Thou dost realize that this is thine fourth night gone hungry, correct?" Nightmare Moon remarked, which earned little more than a shrug from me.

"Yeah, I know." I whispered back as I began to distractedly poke at my food. Seriously, I swear that slop was moving.

"But she needs it more than me. Besides, I've gone longer without eating as much as I’d like."

"We would hardly refer to going a fortnight without food to be something worth smiling for." She was referring to last month, when I’d been giving practically all of my food to Chrysalis. I was referring to how long it had been since I’d last had a hamburger… mostly.

Whatever the case, there was no hamburgers in sight nowadays. Instead, just unnamed substances that tasted like sewage water mixed with mashed potatoes, yet somehow was crunchier than it was soft. I shuddered as I took another bite of my 'meal', glancing over to the steel door that kept the three of us trapped in here.

An invasion and an attempted take over...

I know it’s bad. I know I would have seen that type of thing on the news and probably would have been one of those people hoping that the ones responsible got what was coming to them.

I get it. I’m a hypocrite, I’m willing to call out my own bullshit and say that.

But, fuck, did anybody really deserve this? Hell, let’s not forget that nobody died, or even was got hurt! It was ultimately little more than an attempt in both cases.

Yet, here they were, sealed away and kept barely alive and aware of their own existence.

And that’s not to mention the big ol elephant in the room. The prize question that you’re probably wondering just as much as I was at the time: What did I do to deserve this?

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Everyday Routine [Here Again] Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 52 Minutes