Throwing this concept out there: · 8:49pm Oct 27th, 2016
I don't think I can do it justice.
Okay, so we start off with what seems to be a typical Anon fic. There's Anon, a mysterious human. Everybody wants to be his friend. Things are going hunky dory, maybe he fights off some monsters, or falls in love with a pony, yadda yadda.
But the ponies... they're always looking at the clock. He doesn't know why. Sometimes they excuse themselves, for no readily apparent reason. Sometimes they answer questions he didn't ask--and act a little embarrassed when he points this out.
Twilight gets a letter from somewhere, not Celestia, that she absolutely will not let him read. He gets a little suspicious, so he starts his own investigation, in the middle of the night. He feels like he's being watched for some reason... he gets to the edge of Ponyville--he knows because there's a sign, a question mark in an hourglass--
He wakes up in his bed at wherever. He's a little creeped out, but when he talks to the ponies, they insist "oh, that was a nightmare!" But Luna wasn't there--"Oh, but you're not a pony. She couldn't get in. Because.... it's technical."
Pinkie's preparing a party. She doesn't say what for--it's a surprise. Rainbow hovers over him, apparently not noticing or outright ignoring any attempts to get her to go away. The CMC have vanished.
That gets his attention. He goes to Applejack, wondering where they went, and Applejack plays dumb--"Them darn fillies, crazy adventures, gotta... gotta work on the farm!" He asks Rainbow if that was weird--No, of course not! It wasn't weird. He's not convinced. Rainbow sighs and explains the surprise party is for him and the CMC are involved, but nobody wanted to ruin the surprise.
He doesn't quite accept this, but he can't argue.
The next night, he wanders out again, trying to find some clue to whatever's going on. This time, he finds a large monument, with a question mark, in the middle of a field--
He wakes up again, and the ponies, again, dismiss it as a nightmare. Except Twilight. Twilight helps him research... well, she claims, she's heard of question marks cropping up as dreams. "Maybe it's a vision. That happens." She can't help, but she suggests he drop it--his destiny will become clear in time, no matter what.
He runs into Fluttershy, who looks at him and... she says something. Something a little off. "I hope you've enjoyed your time here. I hope..." Rainbow appears, and she shuts up. Walks off.
They wander the town. He notices... there's a casket. That's strange, did somepony die? No, says Rainbow. That pony just makes caskets cause it's his job. He accepts this. There's a bit of grim humor. Then, out of nowhere, Rainbow suggests he get a suit.
Over at Rarity's, at least, things seem normal. He offhandedly mentions the secret surprise party--Rarity is surprised he knows about it, until he explains Rainbow's explanation. Rarity rolls her eyes, steps back, and smiles. "You look incredible, darling!" He asks for a mirror.
Rarity hesitates.
And then... he notices, strangely, there are no mirrors in the boutique.
"Oh, they got... broken. By the crusaders. It was... really quite awkward, I'm getting more in a couple of weeks--"
This gets him to realize he hasn't seen a mirror ANYWHERE. Or even been near a river.
He bolts. Rarity's shouting, getting Rainbow to follow him, but he's smart--he weaves through the alleyways. Rainbow calls for help, and batponies burst from--basically everywhere. He cuts through houses. He parkours.
Snatches of conversation reach his ears--"Did he find out?" "Fifth one, this month--" "I thought you hid the mirrors!" He's panicking. He's not sure who to trust.
He fakes out the guards. He finds a way, he moves to... to a river, in the center of town.
He sees he has no face. Only a question mark.
Twilight finds him, huddled under the bridge. "How much have you figured out?" she asks, not unkindly.
He looks at her. There's a sign with a question mark. There's a marker with a question mark. There's his face...
"You still don't get it. I shouldn't be surprised." Twilight sits down next to him. "We've got... twelve and a half minutes."
Twelve and a half? Until what?
"...From what we can tell, there's a world that... leaks. People from there, they fall out into... or maybe just form in the space between worlds." She sighs. "It's not a nice place. It warps things. Warps creatures. When they arrive here, there's enough of an impression, a personality to..."
She looks at her hooves.
"The magic of Equestria," she tries again, "it's harmonious. It wraps them in a shell, so they don't destroy the world on accident, but... they burn out. How long it takes varies. How much they know... it's always different."
He stares at her.
"You don't remember much from before, do you? A vague family, maybe a country." She shrugs. "The more they remember, the longer they last. One even went two months. That was..."
Twilight looks up. "I'm sorry. You've only got six minutes left."
"I am not a number. I am a punctuation mark!" should be somewhere in there.
Seriously though, this is a grand idea, I hope someone writes that.
This sounds rad, and I think you should give it a try. You're a talented dude, I'm sure you can do any idea justice.
4273962
Rephrase: I can't get it done by halloween.
That's one heck of a concept... but damn, it send chills down my spine...
...damn.
That's...that's just freaky.
4273963 That makes far more sense, and is the reason I didn't volunteer to do it myself.
Shite, Halloween is in four days and I haven't finished my own spooky story. My thing is completely stupid and pointless, so I could only imagine how hard it'd be for someone to write something meaningful and suspenseful in that amount of time.
4273963
Do it by Christmas, then, horror doesn't end on Halloween. :)
Meh.
Ok, that's pretty good.
But is his skin green?
In all seriousness, vestiges of ego barely surviving the trip long enough to form some manner of tragic anonymous ephemera? Very cool concept.
4273960 Was thinking "I'm not a punctuation mark, I'm a HUMAN BEING!" a more unusually odd reference.
image.toutlecine.com/photos/e/l/e/elephant-man-1980-11-g.jpg
Would explain why there are so few a Anons for all the stories written, but obviously some humans are getting through OK, intact, complete? Or are they from a different realm?
4273994
It also explains all the Anon fics!
Even though that it wasn't in a real story form, that was a very compelling read.
4273994
My brain is going all the wrong places with this reminder of the typical anon features. Because now I'm vaguely tempted to write an M-rated spinoff of this deconstruction in which Anon is basically some sort of incubus: the animating urges tend to swirl around sex because the strength of the feelings are easy to use to keep the fragments coalesced. The reason ponies go all harem on him is that they're trying to physically oblige him in order to keep him distracted, because as soon as he realizes his epistomological status the cognitive dissonance kicks in and that's what kills him.
I have better things to do with my writing time, but I'm at least tempted.
I dunno, I feel fulfilled just having read this. :B
Wow- that's actually a pretty compelling twist on the formula. I'd read that in a heartbeat- or maybe even try to write it.
Wow, this is really great! It feels like an old episode of the Twilight Zone.
The first few paragraphs of this reads like an Anon in Equestria/Truman Show fic.
Then it got dark in a good way. 
Oh, that's clever.
At first I was slightly annoyed at the reminder of ... well, simply the name "anon", I can't take any story seriously where just hearing the protagonist's name breaks any sense of immersion I might have.
By the end, it made perfect sense.
I'm guessing the monolith-thingy is for... containing him? Some kind of magical ward to stop him from leaving, so he wouldn't run into anypony not in the know. Or maybe he is magically bound to Ponyville by whatever magic created his... circumstance?
And the signs are to inform outsiders of the situation?? ...How is tourism handled? What about visiting family? "GAH, it's a faceless monster!"
Gosh, they removed every single mirror in the entire town?
That's impressive - especially for Rarity's boutique where I'd imagine mirrors would be vital for the customers to see themselves.
They basically have to put everything on hold and endure all manner of inconviniences in their lives, just for these Anons that keep showing up. And for just how long has this been going on? How many Anons - if five came that one month alone - have showed up in Ponyville?
The ponies are just trying to be humane. It's completely in-character.... well, not completely sure about Applejack, Element of Honesty.
Though I'm guessing she learned fairly quickly that telling someone they only have a few hours to live was too painful a truth to tell. Pretty sure she's slipped up in the past, with different Anons.
Hay, the fact that dealing with the Anons has become so routine they're already planning his fureral and funeral "party" out of what must be sheer pragmatism....
I'm guessing, the CMC aren't around since their sisters want to spare them seeing him die.
Actually, how would the colts and fillies deal with this in general? It can't be healthy to constantly be confronted with loss like that.
(Also, I'm guessing any questionmarks in his dreams prior to encountering the first "sign" may be a result of his subconscious picking up on the distorted reflections from, say, a window, or well-polished crystal in Twilight's castle.)
4276467
It's a gravestone.
4276476 Oh. Huh, that makes plenty more sense. Woops.
Also took me a moment to figure out the line "There's a sign with a questionmark. And a marker with a question mark" was refrerring to the previous questionmark sightings.
"Uh... so, he has a marker and drew a questionmark on a cardboard sign with it...?"
