You take a deep breath as you walk up the concrete stairs leading to your apartment. The smell of the pizza in your hands was heavenly, and you're glad you're finally home. Work was crazy busy tonight, and you had to stay a few minutes late, but it always gets this busy around this time of year.
The holidays are comin' to town, and they're bringing turkey, Santa Claus, and huge sales on presents. Coming soon, very soon, to a retail store near you.
You aren't complaining though. Life is good, you make enough to meet your needs, and you've got a roof over your head.
You pop your neck and unlock the door to your apartment.
"HOOO boy, what a day!" Stepping inside, you see your adorable, formerly homeless girlfriend, Sunset Shimmer, sitting on the couch watching tv.
She turns to you and smiles. "Anon! You're home!"
"Yes! And I come bearing gifts!" You walk over to the coffee table and set the pizza down.
You bend down to give her a kiss.
"Rough day, huh?" She asks with a smile.
You groan and plop on the couch next to her. "Oh, you have no idea..."
You work in a warehouse shipping out miscellaneous stuff, varying from toys to office supplies and furniture to different stores all over the country. It's like a cheap knockoff of Amazon. They're finally doing their end-of-year sales, and so orders for stuff were coming in from left to right.
You give a quick recap of the day as she massages your shoulders. Her fingers are like magic on your trapezius muscles.
"Oh Anon, I'm sorry." She says.
"Eh, it's okay. It's worth it." You reply. "It's decent pay, a good workout, and I feel accomplished. Plus, it makes the time I spend with you even more valuable."
She blushes and gives a little giggle. "Oh now you're just saying things..."
"Only because it's true!" You smirk at her and give her another quick kiss.
You stand up and stretch and walk into your kitchen. It's been cleaned up from the fire incident a couple weeks ago, but lots of your stuff is still broken. You've been getting take-out for the past couple of days. Tonight was Monday, so you got pizza.
You look in the fridge for something to drink. "So what did you do today while I was gone?" You ask.
"Well, I watched Batman Begins and I'm partway through The Dark Knight." She replies from the living room.
You shut the door with a couple of sodas in your hands and peek around the corner, feigning a look of offense. "Without... Me?"
She shrugs at you. "I'm sorry, but you got me all excited about superheroes! It looked good!"
"And it is good! Batman is the best." You walk back over to her and sit on the couch next to her.
"How about we finish the rest of this one, then we watch the third one all the way through together?" She asks.
You put your finger up to your chin, pretending to think about it. "Alright, you've got a deal. Forgiven!"
"Yay!" She hugs you excitedly.
"Now..." You grab the remote and look her in the eyes. "...Let's put a smile on that face."
You do your best Joker impression as you say it.
She just cocks her head at you. "What?"
...
"Oh, you haven't got to that part yet... Never mind!"
You snuggle together on the couch and press play.
---
"If I take off that mask, will you die?" You ask.
"It would be very painful... For you." Sunset replies.
The Batman marathon is over, and now, you're both sitting on the couch doing your best Bane impression to each other. She's cupping her hands over her mouth while she does it, and it sounds good. She even got the wheezy breathing down.
It's impressive. You might lose this contest.
She giggles and puts her hands down. "Okay, now you!"
"Okay!" You clear your throat and cup your mouth. "Speak of the devil... And he shall appear."
It sucked.
She laughs and sets her drink on the table. Suddenly, the drink falls to the ground and spills on the ground, causing her to give a little shriek.
Golden opportunity.
"Ah yes! I was wondering what would break first!" You say in your Bane voice.
She's torn between wanting to beg for forgiveness and laughing harder. "Anon, I'm sorry! I'll clean it up!"
"No! Your punishment must be more severe!" You reach forward and poke her sides.
"No! NoaaaAAAHAHAHAHA!!!" She squirms wildly and laughs as you tickle her.
You laugh with her as she tries to fight you, but you hold her down. You ease up after a little bit, and she gets her arms out of your grasp.
Then, she reaches down and starts tickling you! You let out a Ron Swanson giggle as you both squirm around, tickling the hell out of each other. You're both laughing and wrestling with each other to try and out tickle the other.
After a couple of minutes of fun tickling, you both stop. You lay on the couch with Sunset on you. Both of your sides hurt and you're both out of breath.
She looks into your eyes with that adorable smile of hers and boops your nose with hers. She's so silly.
You give her a quick peck and she giggles.
She sits up and stretches. "Thanks for watching Batman with me."
"Thanks for letting me watch Batman with you." You reply.
She walks into the kitchen. It's getting late, so you sit up and start gathering the leftover food up. Sunset comes back with a paper towel and cleans up her spilled beverage off the carpet. You take them from her and throw them away.
"I'm gonna take a shower then go to bed." She says.
You nod. "Alright. I might stay up a bit."
She smiles and gives you a hug, followed by a quick kiss before she goes into the bathroom.
You turn on your Switch and scroll through your collection of games until you reach Wind Waker. It loads up and you relax on the couch again. You love watching movies with Sunset after a hard days work, but now she's occupied. Which means it's 'you' time for a little bit now.
This is your favorite Zelda game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o78T9-I4OGA
---
You are Sunset Shimmer.
And you're so very happy.
You're living in a decent apartment with one of the nicest guys, if not the nicest guy, you've ever met.
Anon is a wonderful boyfriend, and an even more wonderful person. He willingly took you in, fed you, gave you a place to sleep, and clothed you. Even when he had almost nothing himself. You just couldn't be more grateful for his selflessness.
You yawn as you step out of the shower. It's been a long, but good day.
You've been getting caught up on a few popular things that Anon likes. Ever since you arrived in this world, you never had the chance to get into pop culture or fun stuff before. It was just about surviving another day. Thankfully, those days are over now.
You grab a towel and dry yourself off. You wonder if Anon is still awake.
Sure, he said he would be, but you took a really long shower. It was almost an hour. You took showers for granted back in Equestria, but here, now, you really take the time to enjoy them.
Putting on your oversized t-shirt, you step out into the living room. As you thought, the place is dark.
You walk into the bedroom to find Anon sound asleep. You smile and get under the covers with him. He wakes up for a moment and shifts as he lifts up his arms so you can cuddle up close to him.
You take a deep breath and smile. You're so glad Anon came into your life. You were so close to giving up, so close to the end, you were sure of it.
Until he came along.
Your loverboy.
...
Love...
...
Is this what love is? Do you love Anon?
You look up to his face in the dark, thinking about it. You've put your trust in him with your life, and he hasn't betrayed that trust. Not even once. He's given you everything he could to make sure you were safe and looked after.
You just felt so special when he was around. The way he looks at you, talks, laughs, it all just makes any cares in your head disappear completely.
Thinking about it makes your eyes tear up and you smile.
You rest your head on his chest and close your eyes, whispering to him. "I love you, Anonymous..."
You smile and let yourself drift off to sleep in his embrace.
---
You stir as you slowly wake up. Opening your eyes, the room is still dark, just as you left it when you went to sleep.
Something was wrong though.
As your brain slowly wakes up, a smell hits your nose. Smoke.
You sit up and hit a cloud of smoke with your face. It surprises you.
You cough and turn to Anon, who's still asleep. "Anon."
He doesn't respond.
You shake him and try to wake him up. "Anon, wake up. Something's wrong."
He groans and yawns. "Mmmfff.... What... What's wrong?" Taking a tired deep breath, he freezes as the smell hits his nose as well. "What is that?"
He sits up and swings out of bed, walking to the door. When he opens it, an orange light illuminates the room.
His eyes widen immediately and he runs out the door. "Shit! SHIT SHIT SHIT!" He screams.
"Anon?! What is it?!" You jump out of bed and run after him.
When you leave the room, you see the apartment almost completely engulfed in flames. The kitchen, the living room, almost everything is covered in fire.
Anon is standing there, grabbing his head and looking around at it all, horrified.
You shriek and run up to him. "Anon, what do we do?!" He just stares at the scene in shock. "ANON!"
He turns to you and grabs your shoulders. "Sunset, listen to me! Grab my phone and dial 911! Get your shoes on and get outside as fast as you can! GO NOW!" He commands.
"Okay!" You run back to the bedroom and turn on the light.
You quickly grab Anon's phone and dial 911. Spotting your shoes, you grab them and put them on as fast as you can.
The woman on the phone answers. "911, what is your emergency?"
You frantically bring the phone to your mouth. "HELLO! Hello! Please help! Our apartment is on fire!"
"Okay. Miss, please calm down, and get outside if you can. We'll send the Fire Department there as fast as possible." She says.
"Thank you! Thank you so much! Please hurry!" You shakily finish putting your shoes on and run back outside.
You're on the verge of tears, you're panicking so much. The living room is completely ablaze. The couch, the coffee table, the TV, everything. The kitchen is on fire even more; you can't see anything except fire.
Anon grabs a large blanket from behind the burning couch and looks at you. "Get outside! Hurry! I'll be right behind you!"
Before you can reply, he covers himself with the blanket and runs into the burning kitchen.
"Anon, no!!" You try to stop him, but you're too late.
You look inside the flames, trying to spot him, but the brightness, smoke, and tears flowing from your eyes aren't helping.
"Anon!!! Oh Celestia, please!! Anon! ANOOON!!" You shout.
You stand there, horrified and sobbing as you wait for some kind of sign that he heard you. What was he thinking?! He must be insane!
You're thinking about running in after him. It might be a deathwish, but he has to get out of there! You have to do something!
Before making any movements, he comes bolting out of the inferno. The blanket over his head is completely covered in flames. In one fluid motion, he throws it onto the ground, grabs your wrist, and pulls you toward the door.
You almost trip and fall to the ground, but manage to catch yourself. He charges the front door and slams into it, frantically turning the doorknob and opening it.
He shoves you out the door first before flying out himself. You nearly fall down the stairs and trip over the edge at the bottom to the snow-covered ground. Anon lands right beside you, coughing out of control.
"Anon! Oh Celestia, Anon! Are you okay?!" You shout.
He keeps coughing, but nods. You just look at him as he wheezes for air.
"I'm...*cough cough* I-I'm okay..." He replies.
You pant and sniff, just relieved that he's alright. You look back at the burning apartment building and start crying again. You were inside there just a few seconds ago.
Suddenly, a metallic clanking noise gets your attention. Anon dropped a small black box he was carrying. Is that what he got from the kitchen?
A fire engine siren cuts off your thoughts. Looking to your right, you see red flashing lights approach your location. The fire engine screeches to a stop in front of you and a few firefighters get out and grab their tools.
One of them looks over at you. "Hey! How many people are still inside?!"
Anon wheezes and coughs another time. "No one! It's totally vacant except for us!"
He nods and helps the rest of the firefighters do their thing.
Anon turns and sits down in the snow, facing the burning building. He grabs the black box and stares at it for a long moment.
"Anon?" You ask.
He doesn't reply.
"Anon, what is this?"
You reach out and barely touch the box. It's freezing.
He covers it with his hands and looks down at it. He still doesn't reply. He doesn't even look at you.
You frown and scoot over to him, putting your arm around him and watch the firefighters scramble to extinguish the flames.
Now you're both homeless...
---
You are Anon, and right now, you're at a new low.
You can't believe what's happening right now. Your crappy apartment that you worked so hard to get on your own, all your stuff you paid for with your hard-earned money, its all up in flames now. Everything.
You and Sunset made it out in one piece, thankfully. A part of you wishes you didn't make it out though...
"Anon?"
You blink, snapping yourself out of your trance.
You look over at Sunset, she's looking at you, worried.
"Are you okay?" She asks.
No. Not even a little bit.
You look back toward your apartment and nod slowly. "Y... Yep... 'mfine..."
The flames are out and the firefighters are walking in and out of your front door. Sunset cuddles against you under a blanket.
...
Wait...
"Where... Where did this come from?" You feel the blanket in your hands.
"Uh, one of the firemen gave it to us... Remember?" She asks.
You rub it between your fingers.
"No..."
Damn, you're out of it.
"Hey..." Sunset reaches up and touches your cheek, forcing you to look at her. "...everything will be okay, okay?"
She tries to smile as best she can, but you can tell right off the bat that it's fake.
"I know..." You look down at the box in your hands and rub it. "...I just wish that it didn't have to come to this."
Spinning to the correct numbers on the dial in front, you unlock and open the box. You show it to Sunset, and her eyes go wide when she sees it's contents.
"Oh my gosh..." She breathes.
Inside lay a clear envelope containing $5,000 in cash.