The Golden Oak Library was often a quiet place it was, after all, a library - but where the silence there usually felt... warm, today it was cold. Ice cold. It bounced and scattered off the shelves and windows and little ornaments scattered about, made itself very, very known.
"Leaving?" Twilight was incredulous.
"Yeah. Leaving." Anon couldn't bare to look Twilight in the eyes. How could he? How could anyone?
"Like... Leaving?"
"Yeah. I'm going." Anon continued to stare at his lap, rubbing one of his arms with the other.
"Going where?" Twilight gestured around the oak room, as if it would elucidate anything. It didn't.
"I dunno." Anon was still scratching at his arm, legs awkwardly crossed. He just couldn't force eye contact. "I was thinking I'd just... Go. Walk somewhere. See where I end up?"
"So, you're going on a walk. Okay" Twilight giggled at her clear misunderstanding of the situation. A new species turns up in Ponyville, makes friends with everyone... Breaks his heart. Fixes it again. Then he just leaves a year and a half later? Of course not! "See, I thought you were leaving. Like, forever." Twilight laughed again.
That silence welled up again - piercing - before Anon's gulp broke through. "I am." He stared out the windows. Stared at ponies walking by. "I- I gotta go."
Twilight did not respond. She stared at Anon for a moment. Managed half of a laugh, swallowed the rest of it. Shook her head.
Anon managed to finally look at her. Right in the eyes, this time. Staring through those purple wells, God, it wasn't easy. "I know this... seems..." He stopped for a moment. Managed his own half of that laugh Twilight had started. "Sudden." He laughed again. It wasn't funny.
"Sudden? Sudden's an UNDERSTATEMENT. What about- What about everypony else? NO, no. Scratch that." Twilight stopped too. Tried to find the words, dig inside, scratch them out. She blurted out the only one her thoughts could form: "WHY?"
Anon thought for a few seconds. "I've found peace. And it's nice. But I miss... I miss getting hurt. Making mistakes. You know, things being... bad."
Pause. "You're insane."
The two steeped in more of that silence for a minute or so. Barely looking at each other, barely anywhere else. The floor beneath them seemed weak, maybe even as weak as their hearts.
Anon spoke up again. "Maybe. It's, uh..." - he laughed - "Irrational. It's my heart. It's my soul... I gotta go." Some more silence. "I gotta go. I'm sorry."
Twilight wanted to speak. Any words failed in some choke. She just cried.
Anon stood up and walked over to her. Stroked her mane - stroked her mane that way she loved. Start at the front, slight ruffle through the bangs, slow down by her ear, then a quick brush through the rest. "I might come back. Maybe."
Twilight looked up to Anon, let him continue petting, working through that impossible stress, that heavy, heavy air - then he stopped.
He just held her. Hugged her, tight.
Tried to comfort her.
"I don't know. I'm sorry." Anon couldn't lie. Not anymore.
Silence. Some pressure welled up in Twilight's head, worked it's way through her eyes and snout in horrible bouts of tears and snot. Those chokes, awkward little bobs of the head where she desperately tried to stop. Then a swallow. And she shook her head - shook the tears from her eyes, shook some words from her throat. "Pinkie- Pinkie is gonna have to throw the best- The best going away party. Ever."
They held each other tighter than ever now. Didn't let go, couldn't let go. Twilight folded herself in, put her hoof around him, held on, held damn tight.
They shared this.
Their last, their one, their only.
Just for a moment.
Everypony gathered at the edge of town. Everypony. Anon had made quite a splash - he... made ponies happy. They all knew him. They wanted to thank him. To hug him. To say goodbye. They trotted over, shared words and gifts he could never use. Just spent time with each other, while they could. Recounted old memories and hoped, secretly, that new ones may still come. I took a long time for everyone to be ready. Anon had planned to leave at noon, and the sun was already starting to set. Anon had made quite a splash.
He cried. A lot. Why did it hurt him so much to follow his heart? Wasn't this what he was taught to always do? To stay true to himself? He wanted to but, God, did it hurt.
Everypony continued to wave, cry, yippee, give well wishings, but only one pony pushed through the front of the crowd. Twilight. She had a simple question, one that flowed smooth from a rehearsed face. A face whose occassional twitches were the only clue to everything bubbling beneath. "Do you know where you're going yet?"
Anon paused for a moment before he responded. He never told anypony. Not yet. "I was thinking... I'd see what it's like in The Everfree Forest."
Some gasps in the crowd - ponies too nosy not to listen in. Too afraid not to get closure. Twilight stayed as strong as she could, closed her eyes. Melted into that face she practiced. "The Everfree Forest?"
"I want to see what it's like. I wanna..." Anon trailed off. He never was good at expressing himself. Not with words, anyhow. "I think it's what I'm meant to do."
Nopony argued with him, as much as they wanted. Destiny is strange, isn't it? But it's not a call to ignore. Something to shut off, no. Everypony knew this - as much as they didn't want to. So they let Anon trudge off. They watched, as he walked down the path, slipped off into the distance - disappeared into the sunset. And that was the last time they saw him.
There's a rumour. About The Everfree Forest. Ponies say you can hear something - right in the golden hour, just between the oaks and pines, ponies go out... They hear something, the faintest sound in the properly pricked ear: they say that if you listen closely, you can still hear his name... whistling through the treetops.