Chapter Thirteen - The After Party
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X~ The Previous Morning ~X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
‘Why must Luna stress me out so much? I know she’s a smart mare. She can make smart decisions. So why must she act like this?’
Luna’s recent activities had been irking Celestia for quite some time now. The ‘sensual rooms’ were just one more thing to add to the large pile of annoyances she’s had to deal with since her sister returned. She did enjoy having her back, but from trying to modernize her to keeping an eye on her activities, and she was a bit more than irritated.
The moment they got within a far enough distance from the alien and his watches, Celestia cranked up her telepathy spell and blasted it full force at her sister.
~“What in the world were you thinking?!”~
The mental link shoved at her sister made the moon princess jump, losing her composure. None of the guards reacted to it, knowing better than to do so.
Luna connected to the link, confusion on her face. ~“Sister, is something wrong?”~
~“Of course there is! A sensual room? Why would you have one of those put into the castle?!”~
~“One? I had a dozen set up.”~
Celestia continued walking forward at an even pace, trying to not look upset at that little tidbit. ~“Luna, that kind of stuff is not acceptable!”~
~“Why is that? I don’t see anyone having problems with them, and before you say anything, anyone that I’ve put into them is too embarrassed to say they’ve been in one if that’s what you’re worried about.”~
~Celestia mentally sighed, which Luna heard. ~“Do you remember how the ponies viewed us as gods long ago?”~
Luna nodded, ~“Quite the annoyance that was. I still see it here and there, but for the most part, it doesn’t seem to be as widespread as it used to be.”~
~“I’ve worked hard to get that out of their mindset. Regardless, when you were gone ponies started coming up with what kind of gods we were. Putting a long story short, being called a sensual god of estrus for over two hundred and eighty-nine years is not exactly something that I found very pleasant.”~
The moon princess smiled hearing that. ~“I wish I was there to see that.”~
~“Just, could you please come to me before you do something like that?”~
~“I will try to remember it in the future, though I would prefer if they’d stay.~” Celestia didn’t answer back to her. ~“Speaking of years gone by, I had noticed many things that appeared to have slipped out of the minds of everyone that I may attempt to bring back.~”
~“…Such as?”~
~“There were the yearly cheese-rolling festivals, those were some great fun to have with the commoners. And how could Tea and Hats Day disappear like that? Or what of Global Species Day?! I am surprised that one had gone away seeing as you pushed to have that on created for the longest time.”~
~“Those are fine, they just fell out of fashion. The last one was because of some problems we had with the multiple kingdoms. If you’ll remember, many of those species disappeared out of nowhere or simply can’t find any manner to make contact with us in a reasonable manner.”~
Celestia was still uncertain who made all those beings vanish or divided from them and their lands. She had some suspicions it involved Grogar, the last bit of spite from the vile being in his defeat.
~“Just make sure you talk to me before doing anything so I can help with things.”~
The two slowly made their way down the halls, neither wanting to meet with the council as much as it was needed.
~“So the meeting between you and the alien went better than I expected,”~ Luna mentally said, trying to find something to say.
~“It’s not like I would have any kind of spaz attack, Luna.”~
~“I know you still have some problems stemming from the similarities between him and those Bleuh Bleuh Bleuhs.”~
~“Yes, well, ehr… can we move the topic over to the council ponies? How are we going to explain the scenario is real without us looking stupid?”~
~“Just do what I’m used to doing.”~ Celestia gave her a confused look. ~“Make it out like they were the ones misinterpreting what we were saying the whole time.~”
Celestia tried to hide the widening smile on her face. ~“I never liked you doing that.”~
~“Well now you’re joining me with that,”~ Luna said, a chuckle bouncing around Celestia’s head with her words.
Arriving just outside the council room, a pony levitated the documents for them. Grabbing them with her spell, Luna opened the doors for the two of them to enter. The ponies already there were seated on either side of a large table, now looking at the two.
~“Now we just have to tell them we need to let the other nations know of him, not much to that,”~ Luna said to Celestia.
~“Yes, and tell them about his job as a masseuse…”~
~“It’s not like things can get any worse than this.~”
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Princess Celestia sat in her throne, having just gotten done listening to another pony talking about something she barely remembered. It was nothing but the same thing spoken countless times over and over in a million different voices. Her mind was back on the meeting she had just gone through with.
Following her sister's advice, things went through quite smoothly. She didn’t like fooling ponies like that, but she disliked looking like a fool even more. After that, many of them wanted to invest in more products from the alien, while others were upset with relaying back to the other kingdoms on what was going on. It was work she didn’t have to do, so she could care less about how they felt on that subject. The subject on his job was the most annoying bit of it all, but declaring it as the alien’s choice settled things quite quickly.
Moving onto the final bit of that meeting, she recalled Luna mentioning some activity involving the rebels around Ponyville as of recent. She would need to send some guards under disguise to keep an eye on things. They were likely after the Elements, something that made her worried. Luna, in private, had told her there were already watchers around the area keeping an eye on things but they needed some proper muscle to help if things to out of hoof.
Her head tilted down, a small frown on her face thinking about the Elements. She would need to check up on them, especially Twilight. What Anon said troubled her dearly.
‘She should know better, that mare.’
Finishing the last of the petitioners for the morning, she had one of her advisers cancel everything on her agenda that day before standing up from her throne with a sigh. Her most trusted adviser walked beside her, awaiting any orders from her.
“Ink Blot, I need for you to send for a chariot ride to Ponyville. I’ll need Twilight Sparkle picked up and brought here as soon as possible.”
“Should I arrange the usual for her, princess?”
“No need. She will not be staying the night. We will be having a long talk about some things that have come to light about our little foreigner and her. And… let that little bit of info slip to her if you would.”
Ink Blot eyes widened, not knowing what it meant but getting the message clear: whatever she did, Twilight messed up big time, and Princess Celestia wanted her to know of this before she came.
“I’ll also need some time alone, speaking to the apple farm from my room. Tell me when Twilight arrives here if you would.”
That was an even bigger shock, hearing not one but two Elements involved. And to use contact from afar was no simple manner, Ink Blot knowing she’d have to set up a two-way portal just to speak. Celestia would be just as exhausted as her sister currently was, her magic reserves dry from such activities.
Dismissing the adviser just as she entered her private quarters, Princess Celestia walked over to her desk, taking out a box holding Star Swirls cutie mark on it. It held Star Swirls private book that she had been holding on to all these years, along with a few of his mementos. It held the final spells that he was working on, things he never got around to completing.
The sun princess was hoping to give the book to Twilight as an initiation test soon, hoping she would know what to do with it.
Sighing, Princess Celestia placed the book back into her desk. She didn’t want to do this, but she had to find some kind of punishment suitable for what Twilight had done. Looking at her desk, in the corner was a picture that was taken a few weeks before Twilight had first left for Ponyville. She was smiling in it, standing there with Spike and Celestia. The princess let out another sigh, turning from the picture.
“It appears… she’s not ready.”
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X~ The Following Morning ~X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
“Uuuugh.”
Groaning on the ground, Anon let out a cough, trying to wake up. For some reason, he was feeling cold at the moment along with his back dampened by the ground. Unable to recall what had happened or where he was, Anon rubbed his eyes to clear them.
He could see clouds through some branches, along with a pattering of rain that originally woke him up. Trying to stand up, he tripped on something, tumbling back on his back. Instead of meeting the ground, he continued falling, forcing a scream of surprise.
Landing with a thump, Anon groaned on the ground, limbs spread out. Pushing himself up, Anon grabbed his shirt and wiped his face from the dirt as best as he could. He could see he had fallen off the roof of what looked like a hut. Why was he up there to begin with?
“Where am I?” Other than the hut, he couldn’t see anything but trees and shrubbery. “Okay, just think, what do I remember last?”
There was him playing the music on the iPod, which Vinyl liked. Octavia was there. He went up to the roof—
“The brownies,” Anon groaned out. “Those stupid brownies.”
He remembered seeing the star shower looking like streaks of paint across the sky. Octavia came up after a while, then some more star watching. And then…
Nothing. He couldn’t remember any specifics about the other night, something he wasn’t happy with. Slowly standing up, he could feel a bruise forming on his back, most likely from the fall. Anon felt a chill, tugging his jacket closer to him.
“Where did I wind up this time?”
Thinking about the places that he could be, the conclusion left him feeling on edge. He was likely in the Everfree Forest.
‘How did I get here? Why was I sleeping on a hut out here in the forest?;
“What happened last night?”
Hearing a shuffling noise behind him, Anon swerved to the side, hoping that wasn’t a manticore. Looking at his attacker, he came face to face with a zebra.
“I see you are awake at last,” the zebra spoke, “and are in a state of confusion about last night’s past.”
Anon blinked at the zebra’s odd wording. “You could say that. I have no idea what happened.”
The zebra walked past him toward the hut. “Come inside so that we may speak, if memories forgotten you truly do seek.”
The zebra walked in, leaving Anon staring at the door. Shaking his head, Anon followed her in, hoping to get some answers and to get out of the cold.
“You came just in time in the early hour; the rain is reported to soon begin its slow lived shower.”
Anon couldn’t help but think of an African tribal hut as he looked at the interior.
“Wish I had my iPod to play some Toto right now,” Anon said to himself before turning to the zebra. “Yeah, thanks for letting me in. I kind of have no idea why I’m out here in the first place. You said you had answers?”
The zebra chuckled, motioning him to take a seat on a wicker couch. “I am Zecora, the Everfree zebra. As for your night of strangeness and forgetful thoughts, it is the fault of the consumption of your subjected ‘pony pot’.”
Anon frowned hearing that, “I didn’t do anything stupid, did I?”
Zecora smirked at that. “You were acting bonkers, crazy, weird; it’s as if your mind was a fogged mess so uncleared.”
“That’s just great.” Anon swept his hair back, “I don’t know why I’d act like that. The most pot did in my world was make people more relaxed or unable to tell what’s what. This seemed overboard last night from what little I remember.”
“While many beings take the ‘pot’ as a recreational act, the more that is taken the stronger the impact.”
“I get that; it makes the effects bigger the more you take. And I did eat quite a few brownies. But I can’t remember anything from last night. I saw some really weird things that don’t make sense. Pot doesn’t do that as far as I’m aware.”
Humming to herself, Zecora tried to think of some way to reply. Anon just thought she was trying to make her reply rhyme.
“I can’t come up with anything since your reactions are not the norm; it may be due to your unique, alien… form.”
“So, because I’m not a pony or anyone from this world, the effects affect me differently than most?” Anon let out a sigh, rubbing his face. “That’s great; I hope I didn’t do anything too stupid last night.” Standing up, Anon zipped his jacket up all the way, “I should head back to Lyra’s, I can’t stay out here all day.
Walking out of the hut, Anon looked around, trying to figure out where to go. The zebra followed him out, looking up at him.
“Hey Zecora, just how do I get out of this forest?”
“Walk straight along that long and worn down path; do not stray or you shall feel the forest’s wrath.”
“Right, thanks. And sorry about sleeping on your roof.”
Zecora waved it off with a smile. “A favor might I ask before you go? When you see Vinyl, tell her I expect her to show.”
“Did Vinyl do something last night too?”
She shook her head, “The plant she got from me was that hash; she has yet to pay me with the cash.”
Anon deadpanned at the zebra, unhappy to find out that she was why he got drugged up last night. She merely smiled at him.
Turning around, Anon started to walk away from the hut, ignoring the zebra. It was only a minute in the walk when he heard a roar that had him running down the path as fast as he could. He didn’t want anything to do with whatever was out there at the moment, not then, not ever.
He couldn’t recall running as hard as he had in a long time. Anon didn’t stop until he saw the first house outside of the forest. He recognized it as Fluttershy’s home. Arriving at her door, he collapsed on his hands and knees, panting for air.
“Screw… that forest…”
Sweat and rain covered his body, with his clothes clinging uncomfortably to his skin. After calming his poor heart down, he stood up and knocked on the door. He was hoping to get someplace to dry for a bit, maybe see if Fluttershy heard or knew of anything that happened last night.
He knocked again, wondering just why she hadn’t answered. She usually had a note up to tell of anyone she would be gone for any reason.
‘I might as well just walk into town and head straight to Lyra’s after I get my cloak from Vinyl.’
Anon needed to figure out just what he did last night. The only thing not making this worse was that he didn’t have any work that day.
Walking up to Vinyl’s place, he pounded on the door to get someone’s attention. It took only a few seconds for him to hear something on the other side of the door. The door creaked open where Anon saw Octavia staring back at him.
“Anon? What are you doing here so early in the morning?”
“Hoping my cloak is here; it wasn’t with me after I woke up in the Everfree Forest, so I’m hoping it’s still here.”
Octavia frowned at him. “Why were you sleeping in the Everfree Forest?”
“I’m going to blame Vinyl on that one,” he answered. “Can I come in?”
Octavia sighed hearing her friend's name before opening the door, inviting Anon in. After wiping his shoes off he looked around the room from where he stood, not wanting to dirty the place up.
“I’ll go wake up Vinyl so she can help dry you with her magic.”
“You don’t have to bother with that,” Anon said, looking at the couches. “I just need my cloak and I’ll be on my way.”
“No, from how it sounded Vinyl is responsible for whatever you went through last night; she’ll at least help with getting you dry. Though I’m curious, just why were you in the forest? I’m coming up empty to how you wound up there because of Vinyl.”
“I wouldn’t know either, all I do know is she drugged me with pony pot, which is why I don’t know much at all,” Anon answered.
Octavia raised an eyebrow. “Pony… Oh.” The realization was seen on her face. “Darn it, Vinyl. I’ll just go get that stupid mare.”
Not wanting to walk around too much lest he tracked in grime around the place, Anon stood there, waiting for the two to get back.
Octavia returned with a stumbling Vinyl, groaning in protest. “Tavi, I want to sleep,” she groaned out, rubbing her eyes. It was strange to see her without the goggles on, as attached as those were to her.
“How about you help our guest before you do that?”
“Who would be pinheaded enough to visit us this early in—” She stopped, noticing who it was. A small smile spread on her face. “Anon! Duuuude, what brings you here this morning?!”
Anon simply stared at her expressionless. Vinyl, confused, looked to Octavia who only mimicked his expression.
“…What?”
“You don’t remember I was here for the star shower last night?”
“Yeah, how could I forget all that silly dancing last night?”
He didn’t remember any dancing.
“I remember you also fell off the roof several times. N-Not to worry though, I caught you just before you hit the ground each time! Well, except the first time, but I was ready after that one.”
“Vinyl, I don’t remember anything from last night. Right now, I just want to know why you left me sleeping in the Everfree.”
“I don’t recall doing that. But I DO remember that you wanted to walk through the forest!”
“And why would I want to do that?”
“You said something about looking at where you dropped from the sky?”
Anon looked exasperate. “Why would you let me wander off by myself like that?”
Vinyl chuckled at him, “Screw that! I went with you out in town! And boy did you draw in a large crowd wherever you went! At some point, it turned into a wicked party over by the forest. We even set up a bonfire over there! That sure was a good time, everypony jumping around and whatnot. I honestly thought you forgot about the forest thing and went into the party full speed. Lost you somewhere in the crowd pretty early, hehehehe.”
“This is what you get for trusting Vinyl in having a good time, Anon,” Octavia said.
“Please, he looked like he needed to relax like crazy. Besides, he appeared to enjoy his time out!”
“I don’t remember any of it though,” Anon mumbled.
A sudden, warming sensation could be felt across his body, baking his clothing. Looking down, he could see all the dirt and water gone, with the clothing being clean. A cloak floated out of nowhere, dropping in Anon’s arms.
“See? All better!” Vinyl said with a smile.
Inspecting further, he couldn’t find any dirt on any of his clothing. It was all on the floor at the moment around his feet.
“You’ll be lucky if Anon here doesn’t tell Lyra about all the partying from last night,” Octavia commented.
Vinyl rolled her eyes, waving a hoof at her friend. “Bah! I doubt that she’ll care a—”
“Or how you drugged him with something that could have potentially damaged him in some way, or worse, killed him,” Octavia added in.
Vinyl stared at Octavia for a few seconds, right before dashing at Anon’s legs, wrapping her legs around them. “PLEEEAASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T TELL LYRA! She’ll tear me to pieces if she finds out!”
“I don’t like knowing my friends would drug me like that..”
“I’M SOOOOORRRRWWWWYYYY!” Vinyl cried out, hugging his legs tighter. “I promise to NEVER drug you without your consent from now on!
Anon glared at Vinyl for a bit longer before letting out a sigh, “Just… make sure you keep that promise.”
Vinyl jumped off his legs, “Trust me I’m never going to forget this headstart!”
“Head… start?” Anon mumbled.
“Tavi! Where are the emergency bits?”
Octavia narrowed her eyes at Vinyl. “And just why would you need to dip into our little emergency fund?”
“Duh, to pay for all the enchantments I’m going to put up around this house to keep out the wrath that is Lyra. Do you want her tearing into this place when she finds out what happened?!”
A sigh escaped her, “Vinyl, Lyra would be able to tear through any enchantment put up. That was her one huge mark passing Princess Celestia’s school. You’d have better luck just confronting her and apologizing than running away.”
Vinyl’s ears flattened, lip quivering. “W-Will you go with me?”
“No.”
“...Please?”
“Your crocodile tears don’t work on me, remember? And besides, this is your fault. Let this be a lesson the next time you try to get someone “baked” through your confectionery goods.”
Vinyl walked out the front door, looking defeated. “I suppose I should just face the music now and get it over with.”
The two stared at the door, waiting a few moments before turning back to one another.
“I guess I should probably go back to Lyra’s as well. She’s likely wondering where I’m at.”
Turning around to leave, Octavia called out before he could take a step forward, “Hey, Anon.”
“Yeah?” he questioned, turning to her.
“I just have to ask, but you don’t seem too upset about being drugged last night. That really could have hurt you after all. If it was me, I’d have torn her a new one. You seem to be more passive about all of this.”
“I… don’t know,” he said, scratching his head. “I suppose I should be madder at her. I don’t know why I’m not though. I guess it’s not as big of a deal right now?”
“Maybe the drug is still in your system, Anon. I just thought I should mention that to you, it could still be altering your actions right now. You almost seem too mellow.” She poked his body, forcing him to sway in the opposite direction. “See? Even your body seems to have no resistance. It’s really weird.”
“I highly doubt that the drug is still in my body. That kind of stuff should be filtered out by now, right?”
“Maybe, but our stuff clearly affects you differently from us.”
Anon hummed to himself, “True.”
“Just be careful of your actions today. I think you should just get home and sleep this day off.”
“Yeah, that does sound nice. I do appreciate you looking out for me like this.” Walking up to her, he bent down and hugged her, inciting a little ‘squee’ sound that he associated with every hug from these ponies.
“S-See?!” Octavia squeaked out with a red face. “I barely know you and here you are, giving me hugs!”
“So?” Anon said, shrugging it off. “I still consider you a friend though we haven’t done much together. And I’m used to the hugging thing by now, blame Lyra and Bon Bon for that.”
She blinked hearing that. “I guess I can see Lyra, but Bon Bon?”
Once more, he shrugged it off.
“Fine, I won’t bother you too much. Just be careful with what you do. Oh, and remember last night when you showed that music?” Anon nodded his head. “Is there more of that on your gray box?”
“Yeah, there’s plenty of orchestral stuff on that thing. I’m not sure about there being any more electrical stuff, heck I barely know most of what’s on it. But I do know there’s more electric violins and guitars if you look hard enough just look under the genre tab. Ah, right, before I forget…”
Anon walked over to their table, grabbing some of the paper on it. He quickly wrote down a list for them that he promised. “Okay, here’s a list of things you and Vinyl should check out, along with some you two should probably ignore.”
Giving her the paper, Anon proceeded to walk toward the door out of the house. Just before he did, Anon stopped, remembering the message from Zecora.
“Oh, and tell Vinyl that Zecora wants her to show up and pay for that pony pot she sold her.”
Octavia narrowed her eyes. “So that’s where she’s been getting it.”
“She’s been hiding it from you? Maybe you can keep her from the stuff then now that you know.”
“Nothing like that, I just wanted to know where the supplier is for myself.”
“…Oh.”
Turning around, Anon put on his cloak and walked out the door, heading back to Lyra’s. The rain was at a drizzle at the moment, keeping him from getting too wet before getting back to the house. Thinking about things, Anon thought he should try and get Rarity to make winter clothing for him since that was coming up soon.
Noticing the rain around him coming to a stop, yet continuing in most of the area, he looked up, seeing a white cloud that prevented the rain from hitting him.
“Hey there, Anon!” Rainbow Dash called from the cloud.
“Hey back,” Anon waved her down. “You’re a total lifesaver with that cloud. Walking in the rain isn’t my idea of a good time.”
“It’s no big deal; the rain was going to stop in a few minutes anyway.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her neck, trying to say something, “I was looking for you since I kinda need a favor.”
Anon raised an eyebrow. “You need a favor from me?”
“Yeah, I sort of… need you to talk to Twilight for us.”
He stared at her, confused. “What?”
“She’s been acting weird ever since she came back from Canterlot after talking to Princess Celestia the other night. She looks like somepony burnt down her entire library and convinced her magic wasn’t real!”
“Okay, so Twilight is down about something. But I don’t know how I’m supposed to help with that. I’m not exactly that close to her compared to you or some of the others.”
“I know that, but for some reason, all she’d do since coming back was talk about failing a major friendship lesson that involved you. The girls and I have been thinking of ways to get her out of her place, and my plan involved you helping out. I mean, you’re the only thing she’s commented on so it only made sense, to me at least.”
Anon scratched his chin in thought. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I guess I can go help,” he said, deciding to put off going to Lyra’s and sleeping things off.
Rainbow Dash smiled, keeping the cloud above him as they move forward to the library. “Thanks! I knew you’d be cool with helping us out.”
He waved it off, “It’s fine, Dash. Though since you’re here, you wouldn’t happen to know of anything that happened last night would you?” he asked, walking forward.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, possibly about a party going on? I’m trying to piece together some things I forgot last night.”
Dash hummed in thought. “I do remember hearing about a party I missed, which bummed me out. I wish I got an invite; I probably would have gotten someone to take my spot for work to make it. But I do remember hearing that some crazy dude was all over the place.”
“Did you hear what occurred perchance?”
“Umm.” Dash scratched her head, rolling in her cloud for a few seconds, trying to remember some things. “I remember that this guy started some massive bonfire near Everfree. He was talking about some weird stuff as well, though I don’t know what exactly it was. I know some friends were telling me he was singing all over the place, something about starting a riot and repeating that over and over.”
Anon’s face turned red hearing that.
“That turned into a mini-riot that had everypony going nuts in town. They painted the town red, which surprisingly no one is upset about. I guess plenty of ponies like the new look.”
Passing by Lyra’s house, Anon could see something odd occurring there with all the strange machinery and ponies he wasn’t familiar with. A flagpole was also sitting in the yard for some reason. His eyes widened, seeing Vinyl was tied to the top of the pole.
“Anon, you’re slowing down!” Rainbow Dash flew her cloud lower, nudging Anon forward. “We need to hurry up! The sooner we get there, the sooner we can have things back to normal.”
“Define normal,” he said, walking faster.
The moment the rain stopped, Dash poofed her cloud out of existence, dropping down beside Anon to walk alongside him. On their way, plenty of ponies waved to Anon with laughs and yelling praise to him.
“What’s that about?” Dash asked an eyebrow raised.
Anon rubbed the back of his neck, “I may have been that guy you were talking about doing those things last night.” Rainbow Dash whipped her head at him. “I don’t remember anything that happened though.”
“That must have been some party if you can’t remember much! Darn, I wish I could have seen you go crazy out there.” Her large smile froze, turning into a frown. “Wait, that’s not good at all. The girls and I were at Twilight’s all last night so none of us knew about what was happening.”
“And why’s that a bad thing?”
“Pinkie will flip her lid once she finds out not only did she miss a party, but a party hosted by you.”
“How did you all miss that last night then if you were so close to it? You all must have heard something?”
“We all dismissed it, thinking it wasn’t worth leaving Twilight for.”
“Maybe Pinkie won’t be upset if it involves her friends?”
“Dude, I see it more as she’s going to force you to do another at a later date, only even crazier.”
Hearing that, Anon could only hope that it wouldn’t be a terrible ordeal to go through in the future.
Arriving at the library, the two of them see the rest of the ‘Elements’ all standing there, looking at the door.
“Hey girls!” Rainbow Dash called out, gaining their attention. “Look who I found!”
“Anon!” the girls yelled out.
“Hey there,” he replied. “Dash here tells me that something’s wrong with Twilight that might involve me somehow?”
They all look to one another before turning back to Anon. “You can say that darling,” Rarity said. “She seems quite down at the moment and you’re the only thing she’s coming up with whenever we can get her to talk.”
“I keep trying to cheer her up somehow, but she just won’t respond to anything!” Pinkie sat down, looking sad. “I don’t know what else I can do…”
“I might have some idea why that is,” Applejack spoke out.
“You?” Dash walked up to her, giving her the stink eye. “Did something go on between you and Twilight?”
“Nothing like that, no. I got a… talking to from the princess last night, used her fancy magic to talk all the way from Canterlot. Serious business, my family reckoned when she requested me using such extravagance.”
She walked up to Anon, taking her hat off. “I guess there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll be upfront about it. I’m, well… I’m sorry with t’ way I treated you when you were out on the farm.”
A small memory of his conversation with Celestia flashed in his mind, making him think that had something to do with everything.
“It’s fine, Applejack, all in the past.”
Her head shook, “No partner, that doesn’t make things fine with me at all.”
Some form of embarrassment could be felt, being the center of attention in the group. “We could… do this later perhaps?”
She frowned, “Ain’t as strong of an apology if I’m not willing to do it out in the open, baring my heart out t’ anyone in earshot to hear.” Her eyes directly stared into his. “Now, you were my guest and I should have treated you as such, not as extra labor. At the least I could have asked you, or even explained my feelings on the subject, but failed even such basic manners. And for that, I am well and truly sorry. I’ll find some way to make it up to you in the future, that I promise on the apple family name.”
“Alright I… we can talk about this, then, at a future time.”
Applejack nodded, placing her hat back firmly onto her head.
“Not to barge in or sound rude amongst this soul-baring moment,” Rarity spoke up, “but what does this have to do with Twilight?”
“Well, the way I reckon it, and with the princess having spoken t’ me just so soon after Twilight having left to Canterlot, it must have to do with Anon and his time here.”
A sinking feeling started, realizing what may have happened. Before he could react, he felt a nudge, Dash pushing Anon forward, making him stumble toward the treebrary.
“I’m certain Anon just needs to talk to her and cheer her back up, no problem!” Wanting to get things over with, Anon slowly made his way to the door. Dash, seeing him hesitate, clicked her tongue. “She won’t do anything stupid, I’m sure of it!”
Anon looked at her, very uncertain about that. ‘She wasn’t here when she broke my nose.’ He looked at the others, unsure about what to do to help their friend. ‘Of course, I doubt she’d try anything with them here.’
“Just promise me that if I don’t come back out in thirty minutes, you’ll kick the door down and make sure I’m fine.”
Dash rolled her eyes, nodding her head. “Yeah, sure, I promise.”
The others agreed to this as well, finding his condition silly. Walking forward once more, Anon raised his hand, giving it a knock. Nothing came of it. Turning to the girls, they motion for him to try harder.
Nearly pounding on the door, Anon called out, “Twilight! It’s me, Anon.”
After half a minute of nothing, Anon was about to call it quits before the door emitted a purple glow, opening for him. Looking back one last time at the five, he proceeded forward as the door closed behind him.
The inside of the library was difficult to see with how dark it was. Inching forward, Anon saw some movement on the couch. He could see it was Twilight, sitting there and staring at him. She looked like a mess with her hair and fur in disarray, her eyes puffed out and reddened.
“Hey… Twilight.” He moved closer to her, slowly making his way to the pony. “The girls told me that there was something wrong and that I might be able to help?”
She turned her head away from him hearing that. Thinking of a subject that could help move things along, Anon remembered someone was missing from here.
“Where’s that little dragon assistant of yours?”
It took a few seconds for her to reply with a cracked voice, “He’s at Canterlot, for… reasons.” She paused, trying to get the courage to speak. “Anon… do you… hate me?”
Anon involuntarily took a step back, not liking where this was going. “What exactly do you mean by that, Twilight?”
It took her a few seconds before she said anything. “W-When I went to Canterlot yesterday, I—” She closed her eyes, calming herself before proceeding. “I wasn’t sure what the princess wanted. Everything prior to me going there, I thought I was doing the right thing.”
The human frowned at her. “Where are you going with this?’’
“The princess wanted to… discuss my week with you.”
The princess must have decided to do something about his time with her that week. It was very strange for this to occur so far apart from when it happened. Thinking about her previous question, Anon wasn’t sure what to think. Taking a deep breath, Anon decided to just let things go with the flow as he had before.
“I don’t hate you, Twilight.”
“…But you dislike me for my actions, don’t you?”
“Things could have been better,” he answered, “that’s true. I have difficulty being around you, and I don’t think you’d make much of an effort to do much with me if it didn’t involve me being an alien.”
Twilight looked down at her hooves, a frown on her face. “I thought… I was doing the right thing. When you didn’t mention it, later on, I thought you knew that I was only doing what was needed. I… I should have been thinking about how my actions were affecting you and not how to impress the princess.”
“You were doing all that to impress the princess?!” Anon hadn’t meant to raise his voice like that. Any anger that bubbled up hearing that quickly dissipated.
“I-I-I-I-“ Twilight tried to find something to say, but with nothing coming to mind she shrunk into herself until she was balled up, sniffling and shaking.
Staring down at her, Anon felt guilt, for some stupid reason. He knew that he wasn’t in the wrong at all, yet he just felt… bad. If he was being honest, what she had done could have been a whole lot worse, especially back home.
Looking down at the pony, he decided to take things slowly with her. Walking over to a chair, he grabbed it and took it over to Twilight, sitting down in front of her. Anon sat patiently, waiting for her to calm down before attempting to talk to her.
“Twilight,” he started, “why did you want to impress the princess?”
“I… I don’t know.”
He waited for a few seconds before replying calmly, “It should be easy to answer if you give it some thought. Now, try again. Why did you want to impress her?”
Anon had thought that if he could get this out in the open, it could help with things in the future with her in general.
“I just, I just wanted to show the princess I can do whatever she needs of me. Any task given, I can do it and more! It might have… led to some problems in the past. B-But I feel like I’m not doing enough, so I have to go above and beyond what’s needed!”
“That led you to keep me being caged and attacking me for no reason.”
He barely caught her next words, “There was a reason for that.”
“What was the reason?”
“I’m… to embarrassed to say.”
“It can’t be any better than not having a reason to attack me.”
Twilight looked at him, puffy eyes staring. “Y-You’re right. Th-The reason was I was… impatient.” She turned to the ground. “I didn’t know what to do when you came here. I thought that the week was a time limit, not just how long you had here.
“I was barely making any headway with you, trying to communicate with a chalkboard. So I thought speeding it up with a language spell would be prudent in my work. Lyra hadn’t stressed how much of a bad idea it was to use magic on you, only one page declaring the usage as wrong.”
“I suppose I can see how things may have gotten stressful for you. You still shouldn’t have attacked me like that. Neither we or anyone knew what that could have ultimately done to me, should things have gone wrong.”
“I’m sorry, I really am! I just… I just don’t know why I do these idiotic things to impress the princess!”
For some reason, something in Twilight had flipped. She proceeded to spill a lot of her past actions, her doubts, and screw-ups. Anon simply sat there, consoling her the entire way. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there with Twilight. Time had passed quickly for them. Twilight seemed better than before with everything out in the open.
“Do you feel better now?” Anon asked.
“Yeah, I…” She wiped one of her eyes, clearing it. “I do feel better.”
“Twilight, it’s obvious that you shouldn’t be overworking yourself as you do. You don’t have to impress the princess. Instead of thinking about how to impress the princess’s view of you, you should be working on how to better yourself so they can see you improve.”
“That’s what Princess Celestia told me,” she commented with a hiccup and a small smile. “I don’t know why but how you said it, it felt… better coming from you.”
“I did take counseling classes back home, that might have to do with some of that.”
“You and your alien knowledge,” she said, smiling wider at that. Her smile vanished as she thought to herself. “I should probably tell my friends what I did.”
“Whoa there,” Anon said, standing up, surprised to hear that. Applejack was one thing, but Twilight? “Why would you want to tell your friends about all of this and what happened?”
“You said it yourself; I shouldn’t be bottling things up. That makes a lot of sense to me. I feel like I need to tell them if only to help me move on.” Twilight fidgeted in her seat, looking at Anon. “I… I really am very sorry for what I did to you. I wish I could change my actions if given the chance.”
“So long as we can move on, it’s fine. It’s not like we can go back in the past and change things.”
“Actually, I kind of already tried that with a spell. I could only go back for approximately seven-point eighty-nine seconds, and it sort of resulted in… why you got your tooth chipped. I’m sorry about that too.”
‘Freaking unicorns and their seemingly illogical ways to fix things. Or that might just be Twilight being Twilight. No, Lyra’s the same too. Speaking of Lyra…’
“I should probably go now, Lyra’s most likely been expecting me back my now. Just promise that you’ll do your best to improve and I think we can try to move past things.”
Twilight nodded to anon, “Okay, and thanks; for talking to me, I mean.”
Nodding back, Anon pushed his chair to the side before walking to the door to leave. Opening it up, he was immediately met with a pair of hooves, slamming into his stomach.
“HUUUURGH!!!”
He was now laying on the ground, groaning in immense pain. It seemed a certain Rainbow-maned pony had just flown high speeds right into him.
“Anon!” Rainbow Dash screamed out. “Oh boy, I am totally sorry about that. But you sort of DID say to come in after thirty minutes. It was just bad luck you opened it just as I was kicking it down.”
He was just happy the pony didn’t aim any lower. Rarity lifted him off the ground with her magic and placed him on the chair he had just gotten up from. Anon held his gut, trying to regain his breath.
“Twilight!” Pinkie squealed out, shooting off at her. She collided right into her, squeezing her body with a hug. “Please tell me you’re all better now!”
“Yes, Pinkie,” Twilight hugged back. “I’m feeling much better thanks to Anon. Though I have some things I need to tell you, girls, about.”
Anon knew he needed to leave, NOW. Unfortunately, his gut still felt like a semi-truck slammed into him, so he was forced to sit there until he felt better. Sadly, he was currently on the sidelines surrounded by the others, meaning he couldn’t just slip out and leave. Meaning he was stuck there as Twilight told everyone about her week with him.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Anon had just experienced one of the most awkward moments in his life. There was plenty of anger and crying, and then anger with crying, then more crying to help add to the situation. He wished that was all, but Fluttershy of all ponies had to point out as things were winding down that he was still there, sitting off to the side. It was a wonder how they managed to forget he was sitting through all of that. He wasn’t ready for the pony pile up that occurred soon after.
He knew that he was probably going to get chewed out by Lyra for being so late. The moment everyone started leaving, Anon was the first out of the door, trying to get there as fast as possible. Anon was glad to finally head back to Lyra’s with how stressful the day had been.
“Why, hello there, Anon!”
Slowing in his steps, Anon let out a sigh realizing things just couldn’t be simple. Turning around, he saw a pony he didn’t recognize but seemed to know him. She had a large, red hairdo with a hairband on it designed with cherries all over it.
“…Hello?’’
“I am so glad I managed to find you, honey. Last night’s little rendezvous outside of the Everfree was spectacular! Why I’ve never been to a bonfire before!”
“I’m glad that you enjoyed it?” He coughed in his hand, “I’m sorry, but I seem to have misplaced your name in my other coat pocket.”
She lightly chuckled at that. “It’s Cherry Jubilee. I’m just visiting here to sell my latest shipment and I was sucked into the festivities last night. Who could pass up the chance of seeing the—” She let out a cough, “—local foreigner last night.”
“So you just had to come over and get a look?” She blushed at his comment. “I suppose I can’t blame you, if this was back home I’d probably do the same thing.”
“Yes, well… It was more fun than I intended to have there. It was quite enjoyable how you danced with me last night and said we could do some things later today if I wanted.”
Anon felt like he wasn’t going to like what she was going to say. “Before I ask what that was, I am having difficulty with remembering what I did last night. It’s been a bit of a haze for me, unfortunately.”
Cherry gave him a questioning look. “Did you forget all of that? Ah, wait, I see. You must have had too much salt and got too tipsy. It’s understandable why you’d forget.”
Now Anon was giving the questioning look. ‘Salt? Oh, wait. Ponies get drunk off the stuff, along with some weird powdered sugar. It must not be known yet I don’t get affected by that kind of stuff, or at least I shouldn’t.’
He gave out a hearty laugh. “Yeah, I might have gotten too buzzed last night.”
“The way you were acting last night, everypony there would assume so!”
“Right…”
“As for last night, I got there near the end of everything when you showed me some fun. We were dancing for quite some time; you even showed everypony some of your foreign moves as you called them. Who could forget ‘the worm’ or ‘the Macarena’!” Anon groaned hearing that.” And who could EVER forget ‘the hammer’?”
“The hammer?”
“Why, yes! It’s where you stand on both hind hooves and shuffle back and forth on the ground. I recall you screaming ‘It’s hammer time’ whenever you did it. Why it’s already spreading everywhere these dance moves of yours.”
Anon facepalmed, hard. ‘I’m such a clod for showing that to them. Hopefully, they don’t emulate anything I did last night.’
“After all that dancing, you sat by the bonfire and talked to a few of us that stuck around, talking about some of your world and stories on your college. I recall you saying you found my hair absolutely phenomenal and wanted to stay near and look at it.”
‘I sound like I was a freaking idiot last night.’
“I don’t have a full story on what went on last night, just what I was involved with. This brings me to why I’m here. I saw you and figured I would speak to you before I left for my orchard.”
“What did you want to talk about?”
“I remember you invited me over for a night of fun, but you said you just had to go into that Everfree. I have no idea what drove you to do that, but you said since you couldn’t do that right then, you could do that today!”
‘That doesn’t sound so bad…’
“It sounded so fun; I was curious about this cherry popping event you humans performed.”
‘OH GOD! THAT SOUNDS REALLY BAD!’
It was difficult for him to reply back. His tongue felt like it was fattened up, making speech difficult.
“Since there’s enough time before I left, I figured we had quite a bit of it for some fun!”
‘Please… just stop…’
“I even brought a bundle of cherries here in my saddlebag. I’m very interested to find out how enjoyable you made this sound last night, so let’s go back to your place and proceed with the popping of cherries!”
Anon cleared his throat, “I apologize, but now is not a good time for that. I have to get back to Lyra’s since I’m horribly late for some things.”
Cherry let out a groan hearing that. “I am saddened to hear that. I hope we can reschedule in the future to do this some other time. I… suppose I should get to the train station and board it back home early with nothing else to do. You take care, okay?”
“…You too.”
He immediately turned around and headed straight to Lyra’s place, hoping to be done with all the strange crap for the day.
Arriving at the house without any complications, Anon stood outside of it, seeing a massive construction site taking place. He wondered what had happened for this to occur. Vinyl was, of course, still tied up to the pole, now asleep.
Seeing one of the construction ponies, Anon called out to him, “HEY! WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” It was difficult to hear with all the noise.
“WE’RE DOING SOME RENOVATIONS TO THE HOUSE!”
‘Renovations?’
Anon wanted answers, and seeing Lyra running at him with a smile, he knew where to get them.
She tried speaking but finding it hard to do so, they traveled some ways away from the site. “You’re back! I was wondering when you would get here!”
“Yeah, sorry for being out so late. Um… nice hat?” She was currently wearing a construction hat for some reason. She giggled at the compliment. “So what’s all this doing here?”
“I got them out here so they can make you your room!”
Anon scrunched up his brow, “What?”
“See, I asked the princesses if attaching a room to our house for you would be fine so you could have more space and she agreed to it! She’s going to be providing for the cost of whatever we do right now. It should be done in around two weeks or so!”
Anon rubbed the bridge of his nose, upset that Lyra likely just lost his one favor from the princess for this.
“Why, Lyra? Just… why?”
She tilted her head at him, confused. “What do you mean? I thought you wanted your own place and some space of your own? So they’re making a room up with your size in mind!”
“Lyra, I wanted to talk about this before any of these decisions were made.”
“I thought we talked about this yesterday.”
“No, we talked about what we would be talking about, later on, Lyra.” Anon let out a groan, “Can’t I have a week without any of this craziness happening? Even a day would be nice. Can’t I get a moment's rest from all you crazy ponies?”
He walked a few feet away, looking off towards the center of Ponyville. With the rain gone, he could see the ponies setting up their stands once more, trying to go about their businesses like normal.
“I’m not trying to vent all this out on you. I’m just… I’m still having difficulty getting used to all of this,” he said, throwing a hand toward Ponyville. “All of this: the strange magic, the crazy beings that live here, all this craziness. I just need a small break from things.”
He could feel something nudging his leg. Looking down, he saw Lyra staring up at him with a frown. “I’m sorry. I should have talked to you about all of this before starting it. I should have also seen how you were doing with everything .”
Anon bent down into a crouch, “Lyra, there’s nothing to apologize for. This isn’t something that can be perfectly planned. You’ve been the one helping me since I’ve been here.”
“No, I should! Even though you’re been here, you’ve also helped out with things yourself!”
“Well yeah, if anyone needed help I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
“But no one’s helped you out at all!”
“Lyra, stop that. You’ve helped me with a place to stay, fed me, and kept me company alongside Bon Bon. You both helped to teach me things, getting a job—”
“No, I mean help you out. Nopo— no one’s helped you by just talking to you, trying to understand you as a being; only what you are. I’ve p-probably been like that too.” Lyra looked like she was about to cry saying that.
“Lyra, don’t put yourself down. You have helped me out with plenty of things.”
“N-No I haven’t, I haven’t been talking to you about anything at all like this room! I-I’m a horrible friend!”
‘Why do all these ponies have to be so darn emotional?’
“Look, I just wanted to discuss with you about moving in before a decision was made. I doubt that you want me in your hair all the time or living with you two long term.”
“Long term? Is that because… you want to go home someday?”
Anon blinked at her question. If he was being honest with himself, he hadn’t thought too much about that, oddly.
“I’m not sure if I can return, Lyra. Whatever brought me here seems to be a permanent solution.”
“But what if it was? What then?”
“I don’t really know. I’d be pretty strange to go back after all that’s happened to me. I’m certain everyone thinks I’m dead and has moved on by now. I’m… just not sure.”
The last thing he did was that protest of theirs, which lead to why he arrived in Equestria. Even if he went home and everyone somehow believed he didn’t die, what then? How would he explain his several month disappearance? All the craziness he’d gone through? Surviving a missile as he had?
Anon shook his head, finding a hundred questions popping up about something that may not even happen, that likely would not.
“Lyra, I don’t think that matters right now. Unless someone manages to find a spell that could bring me home, which I doubt is possible, you’ll likely be seeing a lot more of me from now on.”
“But if you ever did get back home… would you try and visit, or remember me? Would you… stay my friend?”
“Lyra, that’s silly. Of course, I’d stay your friend no matter what. And if that was also possible, I’d try and visit as well.”
Something felt odd with all of this, and Anon wasn’t up with asking Lyra about it since that didn’t seem like a good idea for the moment. Bon Bon could help fill him in on things later.
Lyra, rubbing her eyes, looked up at him. “So you’re fine with living here, with us I mean? Y-You don’t have to live here if you don’t want, you could go somewhere else if that’s what you want.”
“Although I would have liked to talk about this, I can stay with you. Maybe down the line, I can think of if I want to get my own place. I doubt I can afford my own place anyways at the moment.”
“R-Right! This is going to be the bestest best room you’ll ever have! I’ll make sure of it!”
“You go and do that, Lyra. I suppose I should let you go back to… whatever it was you were doing. I think I need to take a small walk before coming back here though.” A nice long breather from this seemed like a good idea to him.
“Right! And we’ll figure things out together. I think it’s needed, Vinyl kind of showed me we need to put some rules down on that one.”
The two looked up at the flag pole, Vinyl tied so it looked like she was sitting on it from an angle, still sleeping. Waving him off, Lyra walked up to the construction, continuing her work like before.
Just as he turned to leave, he saw Bon Bon walking from the corner of the house toward him. “Hello, Anon,” she greeted him. “I see Lyra went ahead with some construction of the house.”
“Yeah, the room we never discussed yesterday. Seems she just thought it was fine. Though from how you sound, you didn’t know anything about this.”
“No, I didn’t. I was out for most of the day, trying to get a head start to make some candy for my stand.” She looked over to the construction crew before turning back to Anon. “You’re not mad she went ahead with this before fully talking to you?”
“Sure, I’m upset about things but it’s not like there was any ill intent on all of this. Hopefully, in the future, I can get her to discuss things with us before going ahead with them. So yeah, I’ll be living here from now on, or at least the time being.”
“You plan on moving out in the future?”
He merely shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows what the future holds. I’m just going with the flow for the time being until I get acclimated with all of this, or as much as I can.”
“It’s nice to know you’ll be sticking around with us for a good while then.”
“Sure.” Seeing his opportunity, he decided now was as good as any time to ask about Lyra. “Hey, I’ve got to ask you about Lyra.”
“Oh?”
“Lyra just asked me if we were friends or not. What’s up with that? I would have thought she’d know we were. Along with how she acts, it’s all a bit odd.”
Bon Bon frowned at the question. “I wondered when you’d ask something along those lines.”
“Has this been going on for a while for you?”
“Eh… sort of. You remember those dreams she mentioned of hers? The ones with different aliens and worlds, the ones that coincidentally involved your people?” He nodded his head. “When she was younger, a filly, she wanted to share some of those dreams with others her age. Long story short, everypony made fun of her. For a good long while, no one wanted to be friends with the ‘strange one’, so they kept away from her.”
“Strange one? Every single one of you is strange… no offense.”
She hummed at that. “I suppose we all have our quirks. Lyra was just easier to make fun of than others. I stuck with her throughout all of that, so she at least had me.”
“So she’s just clingy with the friends she has because of all that?”
“No, nothing like that. She just has doubts about if her friends will stay her friends for very long. There were a lot of jerks in the past pretending just to mess with her. Things did get better, but it’s not like she can just pretend none of that happened.”
Turning to the construction site, Anon could see Lyra jumping around, talking to the workers as they continue whatever it is they’re working on. He turned back to Bon Bon, hoping to move the dour atmosphere to a better one.
“Is your plan on Lyra working out?”
“Plan?” she asked, tilting her head.
“The one we talked about. You know, in the living room.”
“Oh, that! Well, it… yes, I think it’s working on my end.”
“Your end?”
She nodded her head, her cheeks slightly reddening “Yes, I just needed to see things differently for this to work. I think it’s working. It sure feels like it might be. I just need to make it work on the other end too, somehow.”
It felt odd to Anon how cryptic Bon Bon was acting. Figuring she just didn’t want to explain things with how close Lyra was and could hear things, he simply smiled at her, which she returned.
“I hope things work out for you, whatever you’re doing.”
“…Yeah.”
“I think I’m going to go on a walk for a bit. It’s somewhat difficult to sit down and relax in a place being remodeled. I’ll be back later tonight.”
“See you later,” she said before heading towards Lyra, leaving Anon to walk in the opposite direction toward the park.
The walk around the park was fairly uneventful, if not irksome for the human. No one seemed to be around to remind him about last night or bug him about anything, thankfully. It did seem that his stalkers had returned. He couldn’t recall when they first popped up, but he always seemed to be trailed by one nowadays.
At least this time it seemed to him this one was alone. And much like many of the other stalkers, this one was terrible at hiding its presence. Though he did have to admit to himself, seeing them trying to hide while a portion of their body stuck out of the hiding spot was somewhat adorable.
Deciding to finally confront one of these stalkers, he made his way to a group of trees, forcing his stalker to follow him through if it wanted to continue stalking. The moment he passed by out of view, he dashed to the other side, waiting for the pony to walk toward him.
Just as the shadowy pony came by his tree, he jumped right out in front of it, forcing the pony to scream in fright. The pony was covered in black clothing as if to trying to emulate a ninja. It might be more effective if it wasn’t only starting to turn dark and the clothing wasn’t so pitch black.
Looking down at the frightened pony, Anon could see it was much smaller than he expected, likely being very young. He narrowed his eyes at the small thing, making the pony flinch back.
“What are you doing following me?”
The pony stuttered out, trying to find something to say, “I-I-I j-j-just wanted to-to get a good s-s-s-story for the Foal Free Press, muh-muh-mu—” He gulped air, shivering on the ground, “—Mr. Alien!”
Anon hummed to himself, trying to remember if he had heard of that before. “What is the Foal Free Press?”
He seemed to have calmed down, thinking he saw an opportunity. “It’s our school newspaper! I was trying to get something on you for it!”
“How long have you been stalking me?”
The stalker merely blinked at him. “I think it was since you came to our class?” That was a good while back, Anon thought. “Some of my classmates were following you as well, but we never got much from you.”
‘So I’ve been getting stalked by a few small ponies for their school newspaper. How… silly.’
“What exactly do you want?”
“Some info about you and your time here in our world would be great!”
Thinking on it, Anon did see a good chance to get some proper info spread about him around the place. And it’s not like the pony was asking much from him.
“Yeah, I got time to kill. Though I’d prefer to get out of the trees, maybe find a bench to sit down.”
The foal seemed quite excited hearing that. Standing up beside him, the pony introduced himself as Featherweight, a very enthusiastic pony just wanting a scoop for his little paper. The two walk off with Anon answering a few questions along the way.
Leaving, Anon missed the other shadow that had been following him along the way, listening to his every word.
~End Chapter Thirteen~
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I gotta bad feeling about the paper
Gotta feeling that little lid celestia and luna tried to put on things is about to explode.
I am going to repeat this: I like this story. I like it alot. Hope it continues for a while.
He's been submissive for literally the entire story.
She says after she made certain Twilight would be the deal breaker.
10117819
That is correct with most of the HiE stories in general, they tend to be quite passive.
had told her there were already watchers around the area keeping an eye on things but they needed some proper muscle to help if things to out of hoof.
If things got too out of hoof? Perhaps.
Also Luna saying " it's not like things can get any worse than this.". Apparently someone doesn't know Murphy's Law.
10117925
True and it never ceases to irritate me. Most HiE human MC act like scared 12 year old girls.
...wait, so did he accidentally screw over Equestria because Twilight isn't gonna be an alicorn in time? I don't think the Plundervines are gonna put off their invasion any time soon...
Great chapter! nice seeing twilight and some others get some punishment for what they did. Xd
Pot absorbs into body fat and sticks around for months.
I'm glad you kept the little tid bit that Lyra is almost as talented with Magic as Twilight. She just choose a more specific speciality. I can see why you cut it out and I'm happy to see it hinted here. Adding AJ's apology was good too. Not only did it help with context but made things seem a little more believable. Thanks for another great update. Keep up the good work. I look forward to reading the next chapter.
Well, it's either a villain, a real reporter, or a guard. None of the stuff he tells featherweight for his paper would really matter, because it wouldn't be too hard to get a copy of a school newspaper. Especially if they're already in the same town, I think.
It really does feel like all the biggest sticking points I feel about this story trace back to the princesses being idiots for no reason. If Twilight had acted alone that would be one thing, but they just chewed her out for doing exactly what they wanted and went out of their way to egg her into.
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The second shadow could be one of the watchers Luna alluded to earlier in the chapter? Of course I immediately thought it was a thestral and most likely a mare.
The later scene with Cherry Jubilee and all the misunderstanding, that was golden. Ha!
I never really understood that whole salt thing with ponies.
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That salt for ponies/horses does the same as booze for humans?
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I know horses need salt for their daily intake, but I don't know too much of it can get them drunk.
Going to assume its laced with something similar to booze and not look further into this.
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I agree, I should have written her dialogue better. Don't know how that one got missed when I was cleaning this up.
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There's actually a reason why he's been as submissive as he's been. It's kind of silly, but trust me it's not just because he's a pushover. This will be revealed several chapters later, and then we'll be seeing a more headstrong Anon. On top of which, I do accept it's a kind of mainstay to HiE stories to see the human as passive/submissive, people tending to write as if they were in the shoes, as in an SI. I knew this when I originally did this story, but very poorly presented that "twist" to why my Anon was like that. Hopefully, this story rewrite addresses this.
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I always thought it such a shame people never took advantage of the idea that Lyra and others were in that school with Twilight. Yes, Twilight was especially gifted at magic, but the others should have been prodigies in their chosen fields or specialties, or at the very least gifted in magic for their own reasons. Lyra, Minuette, Prince Blueblood, even Trixie was there. For me, surely Trixie should have great illusionary magic and perhaps other interesting cantrips or spells, with her stupid actions and thoughts misguiding her magical aptitude.
But I digress. Glad you like the story so far.
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Hoo boy. Yeah, this one. I did address this in the threads, so Imma copy that here.
>I've thought about this for a good, long time, thinking over what Celestia would do in this situation. While Celestia knew what she did was wrong, she thought Twilight would be level-headed enough to think that maybe not treating something alive like she had would be warranted, and to perhaps if in doubt question her orders. Ask about what to do, or perhaps try and actually befriend him. Instead Twilight went headfirst into the whole thing as Celestia wanted her to, and to Celestia, that's horrifying to see.
>Not once did her student try to think if what she was doing was in fact wrong, wholly believing the princess surely had reasons to making her do what she did, and the only reason she hadn't pursued further like initially was the fear of disappointing the princess with Lyra's blackmail. Thankfully in the rewrite, this is a bit more tame what she had done and not pants-on-head retarded, but it certainly shows that Twilight has some need to learn more about perhaps not following orders from someone if those orders have some morally questionable actions that are presented.
>So yes, she did lead Twilight on with her own false notions, but if their roles were reversed and Celestia saw Anon for what he was, a real being, she would have discarded such orders given and questioned what was happening immediately. The fact Twilight hadn't showed the princess things needed to be rectified, immediately.
Bottom line, yes, Celestia had clearly screwed up in her own fashion. And she does feel responsible for everything that had happened. But knowing Twilight would still follow orders without any regard to the decency of a living being gave Celestia a small glimpse into Twilight, and that she needed immediate counseling and help, but also a strict punishment, to show things are serious.
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It could be because it's a cartoon and the idea that they get drunk off that kind of thing is cartoonish. But it could also be because of Season 01, Episode 21, Over A Barrel. In it is a saloon called Salt Block. Ever since that episode came out, I recall a lot of people just writing it in that salt mixtures would make Equestrians drunk. I don't know anything about powdered sugar though, that's just me adding that in for fun.
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So Zecora is the local drug dealer and Vinyl is the official flag of humanity. Amazing
Does Celestia have to be locked in as the functional antagonist in this story? Everything she does just seems to make things harder for everypony else, and almost all of it is coming from a place of pride, which seems a little bit out of character for her and is causing no end of frustrations for all of the other ponies without anyone even realizing it. Twiggles being "not ready" was a bit of a gut punch.
Other than that, I've been enjoying the story. Keep up the good work, H.H.!
Update?
I noticed that Anon's speech patterns are becoming smoother, not so choppy.