A Tale To Be Told
You trudge your way across a field of grass, coughing softly as the sun slowly sinks behind the horizon. Your throat is parched, your canteen long-empty since the last time you encountered water to refill it some ways back. But you don’t mind. Thirst is one of the many things you have learned to tolerate in your long life.
As you watch the sun slowly disappear behind the hills, you contemplate its meaning to you, and the most tragic sunset you ever bore witness to. It spurs you to ponder on how you have had a life far longer than you rightfully deserve, really. Longer than any sane person would want to live, at least where you come from. You once had friends who understood the burden of this longevity, but they all faded from this world a long time ago, one by one as the magic faded, but somehow, you remained.
You aren’t sure how you have managed to stay alive so long. Perhaps one of them gave what little magic they had left at the end to you and you are living on borrowed time. Perhaps some greater force than even friendship has plans for you that you have yet to carry out. Perhaps you are simply incredibly lucky. In any case, you are here, and you have to deal with it. And that means you need to find somewhere to settle for the evening that has food and water. Even with the curse that pervades you, you yet require sustenance and shelter.
Fortunately, as the light finally fades and the moon rises, you see in the distance, lights. The gentle glow of civilization. You smile softly at this good fortune and redouble your pace. You may not be welcome in town. In fact, you are almost sure the ponyfolk that surely wait within its borders will reject you as an outsider, a strange creature to be spurned. But that simply means you will have to mind where you settle for the evening and try not to make any trouble.
Really, the ritual that is sneaking into a town to make camp for the evening and grab whatever supplies you need from the closed down shops and stalls reminds you of your first few days here, oh so long ago. How you had to scrounge and scrape and steal to survive until you met...her. And the gentle embrace of nostalgia that comes with every incursion is almost enough to override the deep loneliness, the rejection that you never thought you would have to endure again as an outsider so long ago before the end of it all.
You shake your head, attempting to clear your mind and set your wandering thoughts back on track. There will be time for reminiscing once you have found somewhere to settle in for the night and refill your canteen. There does seem to be a river between you and the city where you will be able to stop and fill your canteen, and if you aren’t mistaken, the town may even be near its end feeding out to the ocean.
As you catch sight of it, the obvious telltale revolving flash of what could only be a lighthouse, your suspicions are confirmed. You have in one stroke decided on a place to sleep, a place to gather water, and a place to gather some fresh fish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About half an hour after sundown, you have managed to make your way into town unnoticed. You draw your cloak tightly over yourself, doing your best to remain unseen and unnoticed, your backpack rustling lightly against your back, as you quickly trudge your way behind the lighthouse you saw earlier.
A few minutes of quick work, and you are inside, slipping through the window deftly and creeping your way out of the room you found yourself in. You think it might be some sort of workshop. The floor and walls and the desk are all littered with pages and pages of notes, some in disorganized piles, others connected by bits of string, but you cannot make much out in the dim light of the moon.
But your ears work just fine, and as you hear a soft cough behind you you freeze for a moment before slowly turning to see a stallion standing behind you.
You must not have noticed him when you first entered, but it seems he had been asleep at the desk, obscured by shadows and sleeping silently, but he is awake now, and very much alert and interested in you. Pis purple eyes glint in the moonlight with a curious intensity as he slowly comes closer to you, cocking his head. “Well, aren’t you a strange creature…” he says softly. Not in an angry tone, more fascinated than anything in fact. Perhaps you can use this to your advantage.
You clear your own throat softly and speak. Your voice is rough and a bit out of practice. It has been ages since you last spoke to another after all. “Yes, that I am. You aren’t the first to say it, and you certainly won’t be the last. Sorry for the er….unexpected entry by the by. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here this late.”
The blue stallion nods slowly, squinting a bit as he tilts his head and looks you over slowly “Well, I live here, but I would not expect you to know that, so I won’t hold it against you too hard. Just be happy my mare friend isn’t staying the night, or I might have been a bit less ready to talk.”
You feel yourself pale slightly at the thought. Ponies might be small, but they are quite strong. Even without magic, an earth pony has enough brawn to trample you if they get you cornered, sort of how you are right now. He sees your expression change and chuckles, shaking his head “Now now, don’t worry. You picked a good night to break in, you lucky uh...what are you exactly? A minotaur? Diamond Dog? Haven’t been any of your kind in Equestria in a very long time if you are.”
You raise an eyebrow, slightly taken aback at his question “Well now, I’m surprised you know those names offhand. You certainly seem to be an unusual character yourself, Mister…”
“Argyle.” He said simply, nodding as he took a seat again, seeming content that you pose no threat and ready to sate his curiosity, though not seeming to notice that you never answered the question. “I happen to be a...historian of sorts, so this sort of thing is my field of expertise.”
Your eyes light up a bit. A historian, perhaps someone you can strike up a decent conversation with. “Really now, and what might your specialty be, Mister Argyle?”
“I specialize in pre-schism history, before the great separation,” he says, a slightly frustrated tinge creeping into his voice. “Admittedly not a terribly well fleshed out period as far as written history goes but one that I feel holds a great number of answers that we as a society would benefit from. The current version of events well...it just doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t seem right.”
Ah yes, the revisionist version of history. You cringe internally at the thought of it, the horrid mockery they made of the legacy of your closest friends, and how powerless you had always been to stop it.
Though..perhaps tonight, that might change. You give a small smile, slowly reaching into your bag “Well, you are certainly right about that…” you say as you slowly rummage around. “As it happens, I might have what you’re looking for.”
He gives you a somewhat confused look as you pull out a tattered old book, his eyes widening as he sees the symbol on the front of it “It...it can’t be…”
“It can, and it is Mister Argyle,” you say firmly, but not unkindly as you slowly walk next to him and place the book on the table, with the six-sided star marking on the front visible. “The fact that you recognize this symbol and appreciate how important this is tells me everything I need to know. And everything you need to know is between these pages.” Well, not everything, a lot of it has been lost to weathering, faded ink, missing pages. Small cumulative losses to the tolls of the road despite your best efforts, But you always were a bit of a dramatic one.
“B-but how did you get this, where did you find it?” He asked incredulously, eyes pinned hungrily to the priceless artifact before him until he slowly pried his eyes away and looked back to you, where you were, of course, giving them quite the shit-eating grin. It wasn’t often that you got to pull out the mysterious stranger routine, and you always enjoyed having a bit of fun with it. “Let’s just say that you aren’t the only one with an investment in history. In fact, I have a few tales you might find interesting that you won’t find in this book if you’d like to hear them. I’ll be happy to stay the night and regale you if you’ll provide me with-”
“Yes! Anything you need, please!” he said, not sounding desperate, but certainly excited, pulling up a chair and sitting quickly, looking up at you from behind his glasses with all of the enthusiasm of a schoolcolt about to be entertained by his favorite bedtime story.
You gave a small sigh, even after all these centuries, those puppy dog eyes still got you on every pony that shot them. You sat on the floor, cross-legged, still high enough to meet his eye as you nodded and closed your eyes, drudging up the right words to start the story.
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land….”
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I was just browsing your profile when I saw this was just posted, was a good read!
11042991
Thanks! It was just something I banged out and I'm glad it was decent ^^
You draw your clock -> cloak.
I've been waiting to see a story of Anon finally getting to Gen 5. Thanks for writing this. Hopefully you have sparked a fire of Anon in Gen 5 stories.
Great story Yup I would like to order a sequel if its possible
Play PMV Fireflies.
Of course, Anon would actually start with PMV Hardware Store. ALL RISE.
Or maybe even PMV Always A Good Time.
11043279
I may write another gen 5 anon story once we have more material to work with. I'll touch on it again after season one is over most likely.
11043221
Possibly ^^
11043042
thanks!
This was a great little snippet of a story! It feels like a representation of us carrying on the spirit of the show, if in a rather literal sense.
Side note - There's some missing dialogue or something here:
“The fact that you recognize this symbol and appreciate how important this is tells me everything I And everything you need to know is between these pages.”
11043542 thank you! and than you for the correction ^^
Bro! That was so ridiculously good that I had to stop myself too many times and restart because I was wanting to read faster than my eyes could go and my brain could process. Honestly, didnt want that to end any time soon 😅 Im not sold on G5 yet, and maybe never will be, but stories like this are so enticing. Great work!
11043557
Thank you! It's sort of a metaphor I think. Even if change is a bit uncomfortable, or even dreadworthy, it still happens, and I for one feel like the best course of action is to do our best to bring the spirit of the old way into the future for the next generation, ya know? After all, the fandom existed before gen 4 and it'll continue far beyond, as long as we keep the spirit alive in our hearts.
11043562
Totally understandable and I get it. A show that I never thought I'd see myself getting into, or attaching to characters in such a way, its tough to just...move on. That whole saying, "Dont cry because the Good times are over, smile because they happened" does hold merit in this case. I've only known G4, probably will die with G4, but as far as fanfics are concerned; I think ill be here to stay. Who knows, may drive me into watching a few Ep. to connect with the new cast. Only time will tell the story, either with us or without us.
Eyy, what a nice, small story. It certainly is an interesting idea to write about a person going through everything between the ending of G4 and to the beginning of G5, and try to make sense of it all.
LOVE IT!
11043669
thanks ^^
A mark of a good tale. When you find yourself smiling at the end.
Well done.
please add second person tag
Ah shoot. This was too tempting to read, and too good not to have more of it. Short, sweet, and said all it needed to.
I can kinda sorta relate to the character in a way, seeing that I joined bronydom pretty early, and yet, I have a hard time moving on from G4 and watching anything from G5. The memories were too good.
Perhaps I'll give it a try after just one more read through of this fic.
11044633
Heh, reading the same thing at the same time
But this one is really good, considering I rarely read Anon stories.
11044651
Yeah, I can't really get behind anon stories either. But sometimes, thinking of a proper name to use once and then never again? Anon works just fine.
11044633
11044651
Glad y'all enjoyed it A^^
11044677
Thanks for writing it
My man here just keeps making banger after banger
11044846
awe, you flatter me u\\u//u.
Glad you enjoy the stories ^^
11043279
Make that a double sequel now please?!
11043279
11045733
Alright, what would you want to see in this sequel? This story is told so what would you want it to be about?
11045826
I don't know about the other pony but I would like to see Anon's perspective on what happened after the end of Gen 4 up to when he met Argyle. You know have him fill in the blanks we don't see in the movie, like what happened to the dragons and the changelings and the Griffins. Especially the Griffins is there the least magical species that I could think of besides the Buffalo/Yaks (buffaloes and yaks are closely related to each other so that's why I'm grouping them together) there's still so much that hasn't been filled in that they're probably wanting the fandom to fill in, that way the writers have a good decent base to work with. I mean it is true that a lot of people have contributed either indirectly or directly to Gen 4 with phantom creations. (I even heard that creators would check to see if a pony that they want to make Canon has already been used wether by design name or something else but that might just be something that happens during the Faust era of Gen 4) So they might just be waiting for people to add in stuff on the Griffins dragons and all that because they didn't have enough time to touch base on them in the movie
11045949
Ah but that would require me to actually finish gen four, I am as of yet not fully caught up ;3, perhaps a project for when I finally get around to finishing the series ^^
11046076
K 😃
This was a great read! Poetic how Anon kick-starts the events of G5, really hope this inspires some more G5 Anon stuff