//------------------------------// // Just the two of us // Story: It takes a village // by Sarcastic Brony //------------------------------// Anon is suddenly awoken by urgent knocking at the front door. He groggily looks over at the clock hanging on his wall and sees that it’s around two in the morning. This is obviously not normal for him. “Who could that be at this time of night?” Anon whispers to himself. Anon gets up from his warm and inviting bed with a tired sigh and decides that he can’t ignore whoever is trying to get his attention. As he walks down the cold hall toward the front door, Anon notices something odd. The urgent knocking that was there moments ago is no longer there. Maybe they didn’t want to wake his neighbors? With a yawn and a shrug, he twists the handle and opens his front door. Huh... There’s not a single pony standing in wait for him. With a raised brow, he leans out the door and looks down one side of the street, then toward the other end. Not a single pony in sight. In fact, it seems that every pony on his block are doing what he was doing a few moments ago: sleeping. He takes a single step out while scratching his head, but before he can take another step, his foot bumps something. He looks down with a bit of surprise. It looks like someone left a basket at his doorstep. Huh... Tonight cannot get any weirder for Anon. He kneels down and decides to see what couldn’t wait till morning. If this is another testing batch from Pinkie, Anon is going to sit her down and have a long talk with her. He slowly peels back the blanket and his breath catches. His hand shoots back quickly as the blanket he was holding goes back to covering what he just saw. Anon’s heart is beating through his chest as he starts to sweat. With shaking hands, he reaches out once more and moves the blanket away. He can’t believe this. In the basket before him is something he never thought was possible. A baby girl, not just any kind of baby, a human baby. Anon steps over the sleeping child and into the middle of the street as he frantically looks for anyone around. The streets are as dead as the day he arrived. Anon’s attention is brought back to reality as he hears a small whine from behind him. He quickly goes back to see the baby moved to lay on its side. Something rather colorful catches Anon’s attention as well. He slowly approaches the child and gently lifts the blanket covering her backside. His brow raises as he spots what looks like a light blue tail. As he continues to lift the blanket, he instantly drops it again... This is not a human. At least, not a full human. Anon swallows hard. He has so many questions, but now's not the time. It’s starting to get colder and he notices the baby shivering some. He covers her up and quickly brings her inside. His thoughts are swimming as he locks the door behind him and brings the child into the living room. His heart's still beating rapidly as he places the basket on the couch and takes a seat next to it. He has to see again. This time, Anon removes the blanket from the child completely. There, in full view is this child. The top half of her is undeniably human, but the lower half of her looks like it was taken straight from a pony. She doesn’t look like a centaur. Her shape is still human, but she has fur that starts around her hips and it continues down all the way to her two hooves where her feet should be. Her legs also look more equine than human, having a hock just like a pony. Her skin is the same color as his, but she has a pure white fur color on the pony part. Anon gently grabs one of her hooves, the child kicks his hand away. Another gulp from Anon. How is this possible? What is going on? He doesn’t know what to do. There’s just so much on his mind right now that he can’t even properly think. He takes a deep breath in to calm himself. He’ll need to talk to Twilight tomorrow. Maybe she’ll know what’s going on? Anon wants to leave this child here, but he feels a hesitation inside of him. So, he places the basket onto the floor next to the couch and he lies down so he can keep an eye on her. Anon closes his eyes to try and rest, but he would be lying is he said that his sleep was anything but restless. Anon is woken by the sounds of crying. He looks down to see the baby is crying. He quickly grabs her attention by turning the basket toward him. “Hey there,” he speaks softly. The baby instantly looks up at him. Anon notices that she has beautiful red colored eyes. His mind briefly flashing to a pony that he once met a long time ago. He shakes those thoughts as he returns his focus on this child. “What’s the matter?” Anon keeps talking. The child seems to be looking at Anon with curiosity. Anon reaches a finger toward her and she wraps one of her hands around his finger. Anon can’t help the small smile on his face. The baby seems to return the smile as she giggles. “Well, aren’t you a little cutie,” he says. Anon moves his hand to her stomach and starts to tickle her. She starts to giggles even louder. Anon too finds himself starting to laugh. He doesn’t know why, but he feels something inside of him start to take hold. He’s looking at a child, a human child. It’s been so long since he’s heard the giggling of a human child. He then notices something moving underneath her. He can spot the tip of her tail moving from left to right. Well, there’s also that, but she’s still human, for the most part. Anon looks up at the clock and notices that it’s around eight in the morning. He hopes Twilight won’t mind him coming by early. He looks down at the baby. “Alright, I’m going to take you to see Twilight.” Anon covers the child slightly, only leaving her head exposed. For being a baby, he has to admit that she’s rather well behaved. He picks up the basket and starts to head toward the door. He walks outside and closes the door behind him. What he finds odd is that it seems that everypony on the street is looking his way. Not only that but they’re looking at the basket he’s carrying. Anon looks down to see the child is reaching out towards him. He uses one hand to scratch her chin. “Don’t worry. It shouldn’t take long to get to the castle.” Anon ignores all the looks as he walks towards Twilight’s castle. Anon approaches the two guards standing at the front of Twilight’s castle. “State your business,” one speaks up. “I’m here to see Twilight,” Anon says. The guard nods before he walks inside. It doesn’t take long for Twilight to come trotting outside. “Anon! It’s good to see yo-” Her eyes instantly go to the basket. “What is that?” The baby settled down a few minutes ago and went to sleep, so Twilight couldn’t see anything other than the basket. “We need to talk, in private,” Anon says in a tone he hopes she understands. She looks surprised as she nods. “Very well. Please, come inside.” Anon follows her as she leads him to someplace more private. Once she locks the door behind him, he also notice a barrier surround the two of them. Twilight used this spell before, a privacy bubble if he remembers correctly. “What’s the matter, Anon? The only time you’ve ever asked for privacy was when you first came to this world.” Anon lets out a sigh as he sets the basket down in front of Twilight. Twilight holds back a gasp as she sees the very human-like face. “That’s not it,” Anon says before she can say anything. He takes the blanket off the child, just to hear Twilight audible gulp. “A-Anon, W-What-t am I looking at?” she asks in shock. “I don’t know, Twilight. Late last night, I found this child on my front porch.” Twilight reaches a shaky hoof toward the child and touches her. The baby flinches slightly and Twilight quickly brings her hoof back. She looks up at Anon. “I-I don’t know what this is. How did this happen?” “I haven’t even the slightest clue.” She looks at the child, then up to Anon. “Anon, t-this is a human. You’re the only human here!” “I know that, Twilight! That’s what makes this weird!” The baby lets out a whine and both Anon and Twilight calm themselves. “Anon, have you ever, you know...” Twilight asks looking at him with a red face. “What?” “T-This child is a human, but also a pony. Have you ever been… close to a pony?” Anon slightly shakes his head, but his mind quickly flashes an image of this child's eyes. “...” Anon is standing there in deep thought. Wait, he remembers something. A Pinkie party. Well, a Pinkie rave is more accurate. Anon got wasted and was acting like a fool, dancing and even singing. It’s so vague in his mind, but he remembers the DJ. A white mare with red eyes. That night went by in a flash, but he feels his heart start to speed up as she remembers it. “...I-I think maybe I have,” he answers slowly. He then looks at Twilight. “I thought you said this couldn’t happen!” Anon cringes as he sees the child twitch at his sudden volume change. Twilight decides to cast another privacy bubble for the child. “I never said that, Anon. I just said that it was very unlikely!” “What am I going to do with it?” Anon asks. “Well, can’t you take care of it?” “Twilight, you know I’m not a responsible person. I can’t take care of this child.” “...We could take it to an orphanage.” Anon feels his heart skip a beat as he looks over at the child. Deep down inside, he feels something screaming at him. “I can’t do that,” Anon feels himself speak out. Twilight looks between the child and Anon. “I’ll support any decision you make, Anon. I’m sure the girls will be willing to help as well.” Anon can feel himself starting to hyperventilate. Was it really a good idea to take care of this child? He wasn’t lying when he said that he wasn’t a responsible person. Anon mostly just hung around with Pinkie or Rainbow Dash, getting into shenanigans aplenty. But… he doesn’t want to give this kid up to an orphanage. Who knows what would happen to her due to how different she is…? Also, this is his child. “Where do I start?” Anon asks almost helplessly. Twilight quickly closes the gap between them and takes Anon into an embrace. “It’ll be fine. I’ll have Spike get the girls and we’ll help you through this.” Anon feels his eyes start to water some. Suddenly, his life has changed for the second time. The first was when he came to Equestria and now he has a child.