Chapter Eight - Introducing, Mr. Anon
Sitting on her couch, Lyra took a sip of tea to wake up, already on her fourth cup. She hadn’t slept well the previous night, having sent in the packet that would determine Anon’s fate. As confident as she felt, she couldn’t help but worry that perhaps something could go wrong.
“Do you know how much longer this will take?” Twilight asked, taking a sip of her tea.
“Why would I know that?”
“It’s part of your job I thought to send off these packets and receive a response? Am I wrong?”
“I just send them off. I don’t usually get a response from the princess unless it’s urgent or sometimes as a thank you. The ones involving Anon are usually prompt so I’m not sure why it’s taking so long.”
“We just need some patience,” Bon Bon chimed in from beside Lyra. “I doubt the princess is putting off on sending her response.”
Lyra shook her head, taking another sip of tea. “Why are you here anyways Twilight?
“I’m here for Anon and to see what happens to him.”
“...His inventions got you that worked up?”
Twilight’s face flushed, “I uh, I won’t say it doesn’t, but I do still care for him okay?”
Lyra let out a heavy sigh, tired, not wanting to start on some tirade against her.
‘You should probably just let it go,’ her inner voice spoke. ‘She’s not exactly doing anything wrong, and it does help us having her on our side if things go south.’
‘I still don’t like it. She’s not exactly well remembered at school: Always reading books and ignoring everything around her that wasn’t magic, not exactly staying with her supposed friends, and her magical experiments were extremely dangerous.’
‘As opposed to the equally dangerous experiments we had to do in that school?’
‘Regardless, I just have difficulty trusting her. The others may like her around here in Ponyville, but I grew up with her in Canterlot.’
‘You just didn’t like school and have a habit of pinning your hate of it on Twilight. So you had some difficulties there along with a few bullies. We’ve moved past this.’
Lyra gritted her teeth. ‘Stupid bullies, none of them believed in my dreams and just made fun of me, calling me names like incidental unicorn number two. It drove me nuts! Why am I the second? Who was the first?!’
“Uh, Lyra? Are you alright?”
Twilight gave her a confused look, seeing Lyra staring at her cup for some time.
Lyra sighed, “You realize we’re not likely to get a lot of his people’s tools for a good long while. We need to prepare him to be around us and not focus on how we can benefit from him.”
“I understand, which is why I brought a few books to help us teach him.” Twilight pulled out a stack of books that somehow were able to fit in the small rucksack she had. “This one is about a history of Equestria, but it’s a version that doesn’t hide some of the more… immoral things that have happened. I’m still trying to get it approved to republish that one.
“And this one is a guide for magical theory and mundane workings of magic in our world. It was written by one of Star Swirl’s pupils who remains unnamed to this day, only going by the moniker Sunlight Dee. It was a revolutionary book for its time but there is barely any research that goes into magic-absence or the more mundane usages of magical workings today.”
A loud thump sounded out, the books deposited on her table. Lyra stared at the imposing stack of books.
“That’s… a lot of reading to go through. I’m not sure if we’ll have time to go through all this.”
Twilight waved a hoof, “I figured you wouldn’t be able to look through these. You’re already focused on him and the integration along with reports, which is a lot of work as it is. I’ve already read all of these and will have Anon reading them with my help. Get him up to date on some information about our world, if you will.”
“Which is the next step that we need to teach him to integrate Anon.”
“See? Very helpful!”
Sipping on her tea she thought it over, finding the idea intriguing. It would allow her more time to do what she wanted with Anon, that’s for certain.
A rattling from her lantern pulled her from her thoughts; it spat out in green flames a scroll, depositing inside its tray.
“She responded!”
Lyra burst from the couch, running to the scroll and cutting across the waxed celestial seal. Her face was glued to the parchment, reading each word carefully to see what their decision would be.
“He’s going to stay!” she hollered in triumph.
Twilight’s head hovered over her shoulder, reading the scroll. “You should read the last part Lyra.”
“...It says she wants him to integrate into our society as soon as possible. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
‘In fact, that’s fantastic news! You can show him around, take him on meals, get him all dressed up, and even get to show everyone you’re not crazy!’
“Princess Celestia wants him to get a job, Lyra.”
She paused, looking at the scroll. “Ah, crud.”
“And to ensure this happens, she’s taking away her funds that helped pay for things.”
“Double crud.”
Something loud came from the kitchen, Bon Bon running up to them with food all over her. “Repeat that would you please?”
“She’s… not going to pay Lyra anymore for the work on Anon?”
Bon Bon’s eyes widened, her jaw slacked from the words. “No. NO!”
She ran up the stairs to her room, loud banging soon followed. She came back downstairs all cleaned up with several rucksacks tied to her, heading out the door.
“Where are you going?” Lyra asked.
“I need to go, NOW! I have to collect ingredients and get into contact with some sales reps for a fresh batch of treats if I want to get ready for the next seasonal sale!” She muttered to herself about things she had to do as she left the house, leaving behind two very confused unicorns.
The two stared at the door and then turned to one another.
“I get it being a pain, but what’s with her reaction?” Twilight asked.
“Bon Bon’s very strict about how the treats are made, and so she’s always out and about doing things, talking to ponies behind closed doors, and so on.”
“That’s a bit strange, just for making treats. Are you sure there’s nothing else she’s doing?”
“I doubt she’s hiding anything from me.”
‘Pretty sure.’
“Speaking of, I need to tell Fluttershy. She was being paid by the funds as well from her work.”
“She’ll be fine. Being the premier veterinarian that works with just about any creature, from bears to lions, and let’s just say she’s well paid for her services. Who I’d be worried about is Anon. It’s not going to be easy, finding a job for him.”
Lyra tapped her chin. “That’s true, he’ll be working with ponies, and he doesn’t have a lot of experience being around us.”
“Not to mention no one in town even knows about him. How would some of them react to a very strange looking being, walking around amongst them out of the blue?”
“And we need to get him a job by the end of two weeks.” A smile slowly formed on Lyra’s face. “So you know what that means?”
“That I need a new assistant for the library?”
“Would the princess even allow that?”
“...Maybe?”
Lyra shook her head. “No, I’m thinking he needs to be introduced to the townsfolk! Get out there, meet them, and see all there is in the town of Ponyville.”
“Is that such a good idea? There are quite a few skittish ponies out there. And he’s still not very familiar with being around us. What if he does something that is, well, too alien for them to understand?”
“I’ve been overprotective of him for the past two months, keeping him holed up here and sneaking him around. He’ll likely meet plenty of neigh-sayers and odd fellows in town, but he truly has to do some of it on his own. Otherwise, he may never feel confident around us, and the same for us around him.”
“I can see your reasoning with that. So how exactly do you want to go about with this?”
“I think I’ll take him out and try to direct him to places we’re familiar with, like Sugarcube Corner, but at his own pace. Let everyone see him, try and let him take control of the situation as they appear, and move on from there.”
“And you’ll stay in the background, watching him, and intervening when it’s needed so he’ll feel like he’s taking charge.”
Lyra nodded. “I genuinely think he needs this. Being around him, I can see he’s not doing so well around us, as if he’s restraining himself from something. It was most prominent at the party with Pinkie, how he was staring at us so oddly.”
“I think all of us noticed it in some way but didn’t think it prudent to say anything.”
“That was for the best. I managed to ask him later on and he seemed to completely clam up, appearing like he’s fine. I’m not sure how his people are, but I don’t think that’s healthy.”
Twilight sighed. “It might be him being away from his home and life, and perhaps a feeling of… loneliness.”
“There are no humans here. He must be feeling out of his depth, having no one he can confide in or having any form of normalcy to his life. We need to show we can be there to help him through things and hope he’ll open up.”
“So you’ll be taking him out today and have everyone get to know him. When are you planning on getting started? It’s going to be a lot of traffic in the afternoon and I’m not sure letting him out then is a good idea.”
“I think that’s the best time to let him out, have everyone see him and start getting used to Anon. Also… I’m letting him get some extra sleep right now; he seemed to need it after Pinkie’s shenanigans.” Lyra looked up toward her bedroom. “Besides, I think that would be the best time to take him.”
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A groan of pain slipped out of him, the week spent with the party pony from hell a tiring ordeal. Anon had not expected her to be so literal with a week-long party. Adding in all the farm work he had to endure, he was simply beat.
It only took roughly three days before he finally collapsed from exhaustion. Pinkie seemed to take pity on him, putting up board games to play for the last few days. Admittedly, he did enjoy them, albeit finding some of her choices unnerving due to the peculiar similarities to his world’s games: Life was now Stable, Catan was now Tribes of Three, and Apples to Apples was… well, that was the same. Applejack was enthused with that one.
They even had their variation to Dungeons & Dragons, Ogres & Oubliettes. Having played D&D during college, he had some fun explaining his version of the game and deciding to show them a new rule set, with a proper DM courtesy of himself, when he got some time to plan it all out.
For the most part, it was a great way to alleviate some stress since arriving in their world. He was nearly able to forget about living in a foreign world surrounded by magical, talking creatures.
Sitting up in his bed, Anon swept his hair back; it was starting to get longer than he was happy with, the thing needing a cut.
“Some-thing to men-tion later on,” he said in Equestrian.
His language skills were getting better, being able to pick up more complex words as time went on. He knew of them but simply found it difficult to speak. It would take time but he’d soon be a grand virtuoso of the spoken tongue.
Standing up, he started to get ready for the day. Taking a shower, getting dressed, brushing his hair back, and making sure he was somewhat presentable. Anon wasn’t sure just what Lyra and the others had in store for him next, but he wanted to ensure he at least looked ready.
At his desk, he went through his papers, writing in a few lines for his journal that they had provided for him to write in. He looked at it, tapping the paper in thought.
“I still can’t get over how Gleekman transported me here, accidental or otherwise.”
He had been doing his best to stay focused on his new life with the horses, but every so often he’d wander off in thought about the wrongness of it all. Just how did it happen? Did someone from this world go to theirs and provide it to the man? Was it some convoluted manner like the alignment of stars that brought him through a rift?
A knock on his door interrupted his thoughts. Closing his journal, he put it away as Lyra walked in.
“Hey, Anon! Ready for the day?”
“Yes?”
“Great! I’ll see you downstairs, we’ve got some things to talk about. Oh, and make sure you pack your rucksack.”
‘Ah, another day out with the ponies it seems.’
Taking care to pack a few things that he thought could be useful, he made his way downstairs. Lyra was sitting on the couch waiting for him.
“Come here and take a seat.”
He sat on the couch beside her, staring at an unfurled scroll on the table. It had a strange manner in its writing, compared to what everything he had seen was the norm; the thing came off as eccentric, and powerful.
“The princess had gone through everything we had given her and seems to think, for the time being, you’ll be fine here in town with us.”
“That… is good.”
‘At the very least I don’t have to worry about being hauled off because I looked at someone funny. Hopefully, this means things will calm down.’
“So the next step the princess wants is to see you get a job!”
‘Spoke too soon.’
“Why… a job?”
“She sees it as an opportunity for you to assimilate into our lands and to get to know everyone. Also, she cut off our funding so I have no way to feed you anymore.” She gave him a large smile after that.
‘What is wrong with these ponies?! I don’t understand. How could anyone think to give a foreign being a job even remotely appropriate? I’m only just starting to speak and now I have to hold a job in this place?’
Anon smothered his feelings, letting his thoughts die off.
‘No, don’t get upset. They’re just different. Their rationale is simply… distinct, and unique. Just go with the flow.’
“So what… do I do?”
“We need to figure out a few things you’re good at, and find the best place for you to be! Of course, we’ll also be walking around in town so everyone can get to know you. It wouldn’t do any of us any good if you couldn’t make friends.”
He pinched his glabella, irritation settling in. “Friend… ship.”
“Yes! So you’ll go out in town and get to know everypony, and while we’re out there you can see all the shops and maybe come up with some ideas on what you can do. But before we do that, do you have any kind of special talents we can work with?”
“Lyra, I was… envi-ro-ment-alist. I helped… try and make… world better. Oil spills, coal mines, air po-llu-tion.”
The unicorn scrunched her brow. “I know you’ve brought that up before but… I’m sorry, I don’t know what that is. I mean, I’m not sure how anyone can hurt air, that’s weird.”
None of the ponies, as far as he could tell, had any of the problems he had told them about in his world. To find that they were confused by what he described was quite frustrating for him, along with a hint of jealousy. Unless someone intentionally tried to do damage, things would generally be fine.
He took out his chalkboard, finding it needed to help explain some things.
**I recall you telling me about how your people regulated the weather in Cloudsdale. Could you explain that again?**
“The pegasi help move around clouds and control the weather. It helps water the plants, keeping things hot and cool when needed, and also gives us ways to schedule the weather around certain days.”
**Our world does not have such luxuries. It’s all maintained by its own environment responding to uneven heating. Over-burning our fuels and polluting our air have long term effects, from putting smog into the troposphere and triggering different illnesses to damaging our ozone layer.**
Lyra scrunched up her brow. “Ozone… layer? Troposphere?”
**It’s a barrier that helps shield the sun’s radiation from damaging the planet, and without it, every plant on our planet would start dying off. Not to mention the different ways we’d die, from cancer to lack of oxygen.**
“I… I don’t know what cancer is but it sounds ominous. But we don’t have to worry about such things, the princess controls the sun to regulate that, and magic does help prevent a lot of illnesses like those tumors you’ve mentioned before.”
‘Which makes my environmental science degree here useless,’ he thought.
“This is all very knowledgeable, and I certainly want to get this written down, but unless you know how to grow some nice plants, I don’t think your knowledge will be helpful. I’m sorry.”
It irked him, seeing all his knowledge would be wasted in their world. His urge to help the world felt smothered, knowing they didn’t seem to have many of the problems his world did.
‘Although they have to compete with multiple, magical end-of-the-world scenarios, so I’m not sure which world is better off in that regard.’
“Maybe you can juggle? Oh! What about dancing. I bet you would be a fantastic dance instructor!”
‘I just can’t accept that their world is this well off, not with how many species live here and use up resources. It’s certainly a problem they’ve never thought come across, so they wouldn’t know to look for it.’
“Whatever you decide to do, just put your heart into it! I believe in you, don’t forget that.”
“Uh… thanks, Lyra.”
She gave a nod, jumping from the couch. “I have plans for us to go around Ponyville and get some lunch while we look around. I can’t wait to show you around!”
After that, Lyra led Anon out of the house and toward the town. He had only seen glimpses of the place going back and forth to see either Applejacks’ or Twilight’s place. But this was different; everything was out in the open as ponies walked around, going about their business.
Quite a few of the ponies stopped what they were doing, gawking at him. He made sure not to try anything that could even remotely look threatening. Simply following Lyra was all that was needed, so why change that?
Lyra held her head up high, smugly walking down the street. There were quite a few gasps, seeing her beside him. It started a trend; anyone that was going about their day stopped to see what the commotion was about, only to reel back at the tall figure of Anon walking down the street.
Noticing something, Lyra let out a menacing chuckle, pulling out a scroll from nowhere with her magic. Anon recognized it as something the princess had given her, official papers about what was going on.
“I’ll be right back, I’ve got to share with those mares over there the lesson of never doubting others.”
She proceeded to bounce over to them, shoving the scroll in their faces while spouting off how she was right and they were wrong, whatever that had meant. The surrounding ponies could hear Lyra’s words, calling him an alien being, which only exacerbated the issue of them seeing him as something to avoid.
Alone in a gathering crowd of ponies, he could hear their loud whispers, wondering what exactly he was. He’s an alien? Why was he here? Lyra was right? It was difficult trying to hear them all.
One daring pony slinked up to him, freezing when his gaze focused on her. She looked around for support, only to find everyone moving back from her.
“I, uh, um...” Her legs started to wobble, any bravado she had fleeing, her eyes starting to tear up. “Uh, uh…”
Feeling pity for the thing Anon walked up to her, looking down. He let out a cough to clear his throat, of which all the ponies took as a menacing growl.
“He-llo. I… am Anon.”
Her pupils shrank at the massive being boring down on her, speaking his words in a stilted, foreboding manner. The thing smiled, showing off its terrifying incisors. It was going to eat her!
Full of fear the pony let out a garble of a scream before turning to run, only to slam its face right into a tree beside her. Everyone looked at the downed pony, and then at Anon.
“Sweet Celestia, he has special alien powers that make us hurt ourselves!”
“He made Tinklebell punch her face into a tree!”
“RUN!”
Ponies scattered from the area, hollering out nonsense that Anon could barely catch. Lyra walked back, clearly confused about what had happened.
‘Okay, that was a bad first impression.’
“They’re just… skittish,” Lyra said. “Give them some time. They’ll grow on you.”
“I… hope.”
Walking to the town square, many of the stalls were hesitant, halting their sales or hiding behind their stalls when Anon walked past them, uncertain what to do. Lyra merely acted like everything was normal, even humming to herself as if to show how calm she was.
“Okay Anon, I’ve got to go talk to Bon Bon at her stall. Stay here and get to know someone, make a friend! I’ll be back in a jiffy!”
Before Anon could ask her how she knew what a jiff was, or even try to get a reason why she was leaving him, Lyra had already left. Once again, he found himself standing by himself, ponies slowly starting to whisper about him. They gathered once more around him, questioning who or what he was, rumors from the previous incident already intermingled in their conversations.
‘I know what Lyra is doing, with her leaving me here. She’s trying to get me to do things on my own, and while nice to know she has my trust in that, it is not likely to work. Who in their right mind would try and befriend something like me, who is not like them?’
His ruminations ceased when he felt two thumps against his back, stumbling him forward.
‘Did someone just slap two pillows against my back?’
Two pegasi were on the ground, trying to figure out what had happened.
Most of the ponies, he had found out, didn’t have the strength to do anything to him save for a few rare ones like Big Mac. They’d need a lot of momentum to get him moving like Rainbow Dash could pull off. Magic was, of course, the exception.
“Darn that monster and his wily ways! He must have some kind of special powers to protect himself against our awesome might!”
“W, We’ll make sure you can’t have your ways against our stallions evil-doer!”
The two ponies flew into the air, trying to pull at his jacket to drag him away. They barely made any ground, sliding him an inch or two from his spot. They got red in the face trying to move him, but all Anon had to do was lean in the other direction, using minimal strength, and that alone seemed to stop them in their tracks.
They let go, huffing and puffing. “How strong is this guy? I had training in the academy to fight monsters so why isn’t it working?”
“Maybe we should get Snowflake to help? He’s got to be strong enough to move him away.”
As interesting as this was to him, he didn’t want more ponies to get involved with trying to move him. That would surely bring about a mob effect, and he didn’t want them doing anything to him, such as being thrown out of the town.
Thinking of a way to get them to back off from him that didn’t involve him physically doing so, he just so happened to notice the clouds in the air. Or to be more precise, a single lone cloud floating above them. A peculiar tuft of a rainbow was slung over the side, giving away to the identity of the pony.
Before the two ponies got up for a second attempt, Anon reached in his rucksack. He found some apples he put there, just in case it was needed. He reared back, throwing the apple straight up. The first one missed, some of the ponies wondering why he was attacking a cloud. Clearly, to them, it was such a hateful thing, wanting to get rid of such things.
The second apple hit its mark, a yelping kazoo sounding out in surprise. “What the hay?” Dash sat up, holding an apple in her hooves.
Looking where it came from, she saw Anon waving at him. A frown appeared on her face, throwing the apple back. Anon had no problem catching the return, watching Rainbow Dash slowly descend to the ground.
“You better have a good reason chucking that at me.”
Anon pointed at the two pegasi now floating toward Dash. “Help, please.”
The pony pumped a hoof in the air. “Alright, Dash is here, knew you weren’t a square. So you heard Roseluck say a monster was brought here?”
The second pony nodded her head. “We came here as fast as we could to put him back in that pocket he came from.”
“We couldn’t find anypony around here that could help so we decided to take action. He’s a toughie; he’s so strong, we couldn’t even budge it.”
“Way too strong.; he’ll ruin all our future plans, financial or otherwise!”
“Roseluck and the others said he gave her a look that spoke entire volumes to her.”
“Possibly a book or two’s worth!”
“She said he was here because he couldn’t find anyone to stay with him for too long and is now going to take over our mares and stallions.”
“He can’t even hold a stable relationship! How sad.”
“And that he’s going to take over our world and be the supreme ruler.”
“For a very measured amount of time!”
Rainbow Dash stared at them incredulously. “What?” She looked at Anon, and then back to them. “A monster? Girls, he’s not a monster.”
The two pegasi hovered in the air, staring at her before turning to Anon.
“He’s… not a monster?”
“Then what is he exactly? Someone from another continent? I’ve never seen anything like him before.”
“I doubt you would. He’s an alien from another dimension,” Dash answered. “Guy somehow got stuck in a teleportation spell or something and got dropped inside the forest. Lyra’s just been helping him out since he’s arrived here.”
As if a switch had been flipped, the ponies hearing that almost seemed to look at him with less hostility, talking about him in wonderment, growing more curious about him.
“He’s an alien? That’s so cool!”
Anon couldn’t believe how quickly the pony’s turned their views around with that being explained. Quite a few in the crowd were now talking to one another, very curious and wanting to know more about the alien.
Dash gave a small chuckle. “So if he was a monster he needs to leave, but as an alien and everything’s fine?”
“Yeah, totally!”
“Why would we think an alien would be scary?”
“What if he was an alien monster?” Rainbow Dash asked.
One of the pegasi rubbed her chin in thought. “Well… we’d be running away from the coolest thing ever, I suppose.”
Rainbow Dash tittered at her answer.
Seeing movement on the side, Anon noticed that Lyra was now a part of the crowd, drinking what he believed to be a smoothie. It was pretty impressive how easily she blended into the background without even trying. She waved at him with a smile before going back to her drink. Anon had figured she just wanted the crowd to figure things out on their own about him. It was either that or she abandoned him to get a drink, and there’d be no reason to think that, right?
Feeling something poking him, he went back to the two pegasus ponies hovering in the air.
“Hey, we’re sorry for thinking you’re a monster.”
“Yeah, super sorry.”
“It fine,” he said, waving them off.
“You speak sorta funny, Mr. Alien,” one of the two pegasi said.
“I like it!” the other exclaimed, floating up to his face. “He’s got a really cool accent!”
Before he could say anything about it, Dash spoke for him. “That’s because he’s still learning how to speak our language. He’s got this weird roll in his tongue when he says anything.” She turned to Anon, giving him a smirk. “So is there anything else this awesome mare can do for you?”
He shook his head no.
“Well then, I’m off to relax. Catch me later when you want to hang out.” She quickly zipped back up to her cloud, pushing it higher in the air before laying back down on it.
The crowd around Anon seemed to have dispersed once they realized he wasn’t a current danger to them, though a few lingered around, their curiosity not sated. He found it strange how the ponies immediately regarded him with indifference from how they previously acted.
…Except for the ponies that ran off. He hoped word would get around that he wasn’t hostile. Anon didn’t want a lynch mob chasing him around the place.
Feeling a tug on his shirt once again, Anon saw that the two pegasus ponies were still there, hovering in front of him.
“Since that’s over with, we… don’t have much to do today.”
“So we’d like to be your friends around here!”
“Two totally awesome pegasus friends, might I add.”
Hearing the clopping of hooves, Anon saw Lyra walking up to his side. “I don’t see the harm in you two coming along. I was just about to show Anon around the place and get some food at the Sugarcube Corner.”
One of them perked up hearing that. “We’d love to come! They’re having a sale on pineapple sundaes!”
“Oh! We never got to introduce ourselves!” the two ponies said simultaneously.
They started to do something that looked practiced with them spinning around in the air in the pattern of a sideways eight, looping around one another. All of a sudden, they collide together in mid-air, holding one another.
“I’m Flitter!”
“And I’m Cloud Chaser !”
“And we’re the two awesomest pony sisters in all of Ponyville!” they say together loudly.
“And I’m hungry,” Lyra said, moving past them. “Let’s get going before they stop serving lunch!”
“Alright!” the two pegasi say in unison.
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“I’m sorry Anon, I forgot about what their meals would consist of.”
The lunch was a bust, their entire menu consisting of every single sugary item he could think of, and then some. There was even sugar water on the thing. Who in their right mind would order that?
If that wasn’t enough, he had also found out Pinkie Pie both worked and lived there. She was upset he wouldn’t order anything, promising him he’d enjoy a pastry or cupcake. No amount of begging or even giving them away would budge him, he would refuse to eat such things for a meal.
Instead, the others ate there, awkwardly trying to enjoy their meals as Anon stood there, waiting for them to finish. He managed to get a lettuce sandwich at a stall, eating that as they walked to their next destination. Admittedly, it was quite good for such an odd idea for a sandwich; he’d seen lettuce replacing bread, but hadn’t seen lettuce replacing the fillers before.
Arriving at their next destination, Rarity’s Boutique, Anon found it was one of the more interesting places in the town, designed like a carousel.
“Ding-ding!” Cloud Chaser called out.
“I’ll be right the-eere!” the voice of Rarity trilled back. A few seconds go by before she opened the door. Seeing Anon, Rarity immediately jumped at him. “Ooh thank you, thank you, thank you, tha-ha-haaank you!” Rarity held him around his waist in a tight hug.
“…Your welcome?”
Rarity let him go, a large smile on her face. “Ever since I got those custom orders from Lyra and used the designs in my work, everypony has been ordering for their own nonstop!”
“Oh!” Lyra exclaimed. “Are they done?”
Anon was confused by what they were talking about. The two pegasi give him questioning looks, which he shrugged. Moving them to follow her inside, Rarity brings them to a room full of little mannequins with pony physiques.
Rarity grabbed a box that was put aside from a list of others boxes in the corner, her magic floating it over to the four of them. Lyra threw the box open, letting out a twitter as she removed the clothed item.
“Socks?” Anon questioned.
“Not just any socks, but the latest in fashion!” Rarity answered back. “They’re all the rage! The way they’re designed in the patterns to showing off all the nice stitching while allowing the colors through. They’re also comfortable, fit well on any hoof, and they’re very stylish. There are so many ways to design them, it’s been a great addition to my wardrobe!”
Lyra was giggling, putting the socks on. She squealed once she had them on, clapping her front hooves together.
“So awesome! They match my color and everything!”
“…I want those socks,” Flitter said, staring with envy at Lyra.
Anon found it weird they were enjoying them to such a degree. He required them, but they’re just using it for… fun?
‘What is wrong with these ponies?’
Taking her socks off, Lyra put them back into the box. “These are perfect! I can’t thank you enough.”
“Why darling, you should be thanking Anon for these wonderful little things.”
Right after she said that Anon found himself lying on the ground, being squeezed by Lyra. “Pony hug pile!” one of them said seeing that. And now he was covered in ponies, being squeezed in all directions.
Soon enough, the four of them said their goodbyes as they walked out the door, waving Rarity off. The minty unicorn was currently in thought where to go next as she floated her box beside her.
“Oh, oh!” Flitter said, trying to get their attention. “Can we show him Cloudsdale? I bet he would love to see that!”
“How is he supposed to even get up there?” Lyra asked.
Cloud Chaser waved a hoof in the air, “Don’t mind her, she just wants to show him our house likely with something else in mind…” She hovered in the air, nudging Flitter in the side.
“C-Cloudy!” Flitter yelled, face turning red. “That’s not true!”
“She has a thing for beings of high elevation if you catch my drift.”
“Stop telling people that. Next thing you know, everyone will think I’m into mountain climbing!”
“Always wanted a tall, built stud by her side.”
“In my opinion, you need a strong stud to build a good foundation.”
“Yeah, sure. It was pretty clear the moment you saw Anon that something was going on with you. Just admit it…” Cloud Chaser hovered right up to her face with a grin. “You have the hots for him!”
“AAAAAH!” Flitter screamed out in embarrassment. She started batting Cloud Chaser with her hooves, flinging them at her head. Her sister laughed it off, flying around her in circles.
Anon shook his head at the randomness before talking to her. “Lyra, what… what do now?”
“Let’s just leave. I got word some friends recently returned and I want you to meet them before it gets dark.”
She turned around, continuing down the road. Anon followed, leaving the two ponies behind to argue with one another.
Lyra herself had already shown him to quite a few places, with a few ponies getting used to his presence, though many still shied away from him. Going down the road, Anon saw that many of the ponies weren’t acting normal. At least, what he thought was normal. They seemed to be hiding around behind trees or in bushes, following him close behind. He told Lyra this but she didn’t think much of it.
“It’s probably just some curious ponies wanting to know more about you,” she said just as they made it to a house. “Here we are!”
It looked like someone split a house in half, coloring each side differently to their tastes. It was certainly one of the more interesting houses he had seen so far. He could hear a strange thumping coming from inside of it, making him wonder what was going on in there.
“When I was back in college, it was these gals here that were the greatest of buds I knew. Well, except for Bon Bon, she’s the bestest BEST bud.”
“You have… a co-llege? A hi-gher edu-ca-tion school?”
“Sorry I never got around to telling you that but there’s just so much to share about our world, some things just slip by. But, yes, we have our education system that works kind of like yours. It’s not until we get older do we start splitting off into different vocations, earlier than you do. Oh, but we also have special schools like the one I and Twilight went to when I was younger.
“Later in life I split off in a different direction from others I know, taking degrees in cultural studies, music theory, and some cryptozoology classes after the princess introduced me to some studies for my komlas career. I met these two in college during then and try to keep in touch when I can. And I’m hoping they’ll open up to you.”
Lyra walked up to the door, very slowly tapping the door. After a few seconds of no reply, Lyra let out a sigh, hitting it harder now. A peculiar sound came out, sounding much like wapa-wapa-wapa. Anon raised a brow at that, staring at Lyra and her funny knocking on display. A red blush appeared on her face, clearly embarrassed.
The door slammed open, revealing a very disheveled pony that wore purple glasses. A heavy thumping could be both heard and felt coming from the house. Anon thought he recognized it as a form of electronic music, possibly dubstep.
“Lyra! I thought I heard you! You’re the only crazy mare I know with those silly bonker sounds. So what has you stopping by?” Lyra motioned at Anon, with the pony letting out a whistle, looking him up and down. “So THIS is the devilish dog that everypony’s talking about!”
“You already know about him?”
“Sister, when an interstellar navigator drops by, word is going to travel far and wide. Well hurry up and bring that bodacious beast from the stars inside!”
The two of them followed the pony in, the place looking cluttered with strange wires and equipment. She shoved things to the side, getting the two to a couch. “I can’t remember the last time we’ve had time to yak about things.”
“Maybe if the two of you settled down we could hang out more often.”
“The traveling is too alluring to give up. You haven’t partied until you’ve seen a griffon bopping about, clucking their heads off.” The goggled pony walked over to a box, tapping buttons that were on it that turned off the thumping. “For a bunch of beak-heads, they sure do enjoy to party. Oh! Totally forgot to introduce myself to your otherworldly pal.” She stuck a hoof out to him, smiling at Anon. “Name’s Vinyl Scratch and don’t you forget it!”
He accepted her hoof with a shake, “Name is Anon.”
Vinyl gave a laugh hearing him. “That’s a peculiar accent you have there. I bet it would sound kickin’ as part of a mixin’ for some of my work.”
“What… do you do?”
“I’m a DJ. That’s another word for an awe-inspiring musician if you didn’t know. See, other DJ’s tend to just go around showing off some simple beats or a quick hash-up of something already done. But I have evolved beyond such mundane things! I have brought about a wave of frenzied noise to everypony’s ears in Equestria and helped refine the lightning-jabber that is the electronic arts!”
The techno pony stopped in her spiel, scrunching her face, appearing like she forgot something. A flash of recollection and she’s up from the couch.
“Ah right, I nearly forgot. I should probably get some refreshments. Octavia would chew me out if I forget something like that again.”
Once she left, it gave Anon some time to take a breather, and look around. The place on the inside looked like it was split down the middle and had things of the more sophisticated manner on one side, and the wires and electronic tools on the other. The wires were all over, making him stay on the couch, afraid he’d hurt something. He had no idea what any of it did and didn’t want to get zapped by some electricity, or lightning as it’s called here.
“I thought… you did not… have el-ect-ro-nics.”
“We don’t, or at least not like your people. Everything here is powered by magic, and Vinyl just transfers her magic into a lightning that can be intercepted by the wires, allowing her to control multiple things at once. Most other ponies that aren’t unicorns have to have one on-site just to power their setups.”
“I… see.”
‘So they have some form of electronics here but haven’t advanced it to anything meaningful. I understand that, especially with magic. Why figure out how to make an option to the wheel when it’s already working just fine as it is?’
“Vinyl experimented with how tunes could sound with lightning back in college,” Lyra continued. “She was inspired by past DJ’s that attempted to use lightning in some form for music and took it to a whole different level. At the time, most beings used lighting when it came to music for playing records or recording them.”
She waved a hoof around the room. Wires and speakers and many other unidentifiable things were haphazardly strewn about the place in a chaotic mess, at least on her side.
“This is the result of her work. Vinyl showed off her music to the world and soon, many other ponies started to emulate what she did, creating their works using her as inspiration.”
“A music… pio-neer?” Anon hummed to himself, looking at the large speaker in the corner. “That is… imp-ress-ive.”
Vinyl soon returned with a tray full of cups and a kettle, along with another pony walking beside her. She was of a simpler appearance, wearing only a pink bowtie with a white-collar.
“Vinyl here does not know what’s appropriate to serve to guests and, thankfully, I was in the kitchen when she was trying to bring something out.”
“Still think fizzy drink and hay fries are perfectly reasonable…” Vinyl grumbled out. She levitated the tray on the table in front of the couch. “This is Octavia,” she said with a wave of a hoof. “She can be pretty uptight at times but she’s cool in my books.”
Octavia remained blank-faced at her words before sitting down in a chair. She poured some tea into cups before passing it around to everyone. Anon took a sip, finding it fairly bland and in dire need of sugar.
“Is the tea not to your liking?” Octavia asked, noticing his grimace at the taste.
“No, need sugar,” he replied.
Lyra dropped a few sugar cubes in his cup, stirring it with her magic.
“That is a fascinating accent you have there… well, pardon my manners. I don’t know your name.”
“Anon.”
“Anon… what a peculiar name. Where exactly do you hail from?”
“He’s not from around here, Octavia,” Vinyl told her. “He’s a misplaced foreigner from another dimension. Surely you’ve heard of the rumors going around?”
Octavia took a sip of her tea, “I don’t try to believe in every single rumor that crops up around here. For all I knew, he was just a minotaur that held a preference towards a shaved body.”
“But… he has no horns,” Vinyl pointed out.
“Yes, you are correct there. Ah, I do apologize for thinking so oddly of you. I doubt you felt comfortable being compared to something so crass sounding.”
“OOOH! You’ll apologize for that but won’t apologize for wrecking that awesome upgrade I did for your cello?”
“That was no upgrade, that was an abomination to music itself.”
“It’s got a slick new sound and everything. Everyone’s going to want to hear that!”
“That is solely your opinion, which you should keep to yourself. What you did was destroy my beautiful instrument for your perverse pleasures. Do you know how much it’s going to cost me to fix that?”
“There’s no need to fix anything. Hooking up that lightning-pack made it so much sicker to listen to! It was… it was… It was wondrajestic and you should be lucky to have me do that!”
Octavia sputtered, “That is not a word, Vinyl. Stop twisting the Equestrian language to fit your needs, you fiend!”
“You’re a fiend!”
Anon stared at the two ponies arguing in front of him, feeling awkward at the situation. Lyra had a big grin on her face, watching the scene.
“They’re fun to watch,” Lyra said to him. He merely shook his head at her.
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
The two of them started to return home after spending an hour at their house. With the argument heating up, he wanted to leave in fear of being brought into the fight himself. Anon felt confident in defending himself, just not around magic, or when they were throwing things around at one point.
“They do that… often?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s sort of their thing. But they’re still pretty cool friends.” Anon found it strange they could stand one another. “It sure was an interesting day,” she said just as they walked inside their house, “I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow!”
Lyra started to put up her rucksack on a peg as Anon thought over her words. He knew that he would have to go back out, but the thought of doing so was making him nauseous.
“Lyra, why are we… doing this again?”
“Well, the princess wants you to assimilate into our town. I want everyone to get used to you so you can get a job and make some friends!”
She looked up at him with a smile, quickly turning into a frown noticing his dour disposition. “Are you okay? Did you not like going out? We can take it slowly if you need it.”
He placed his rucksack on the rung near the door, making his way to her couch and sitting. The entire time he had been trying to work things out, convincing himself he could get used to his new life. All the whispers, the stares. And knowing he’d be living with all those ponies didn’t feel right to him.
“I’m not sure… I can do this.”
Lyra sat beside him, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?”
A humorless laugh escaped. “I just… miss my nor-mal-cy, my life. I miss my mother who… always doted on me, pro-bably thinks I am dead. I miss riding my bike… going out, list-ening to my music. Every-thing, my ca-reer, all I had built up… is gone.”
He leaned on his legs, looking down. “I will never… have the chance to do any-thing I wanted before. Vi-sit Paris, write that book I wanted to, take a shu-ttle to the moon.”
Anon let out a long, drawn-out sigh. He chuckled, thinking about his life. “There was this place… Hangry Henry’s. Ser-ved the best co-ffee and cherry pie. Went there… for years.” He could remember the taste, the early morning mood the establishment held. “You never know… how much you take things for granted… until it is gone.”
Feeling something wrap around him, he saw Lyra hugging him, crying into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I want to be able to make things better for your life, but I don’t know how to give you any of that.”
Lyra’s head was lightly patted by him. “It is fine. I am just feeling… homesick, and lo-nely.”
“Y, you can make new friends here and have a new home and not be sad or feel lonely.”
“I do not think that… will work. It is… hard to ex-plain.”
“Well, I’m not going to give up! I want you to be happy here on our planet. Not just because it’s my job, but because I’m your friend. And friends help friends.”
He hummed, looking at her determined face. “No… fair weather friends here.”
“Right, we’ll hope for great sunny days for you!”
Anon withheld a chuckle at the misinterpretation, uncertain if the ponies even knew what that concept meant.
‘I just need to work on living here. Take my time, and try to live with them in some form. Lyra’s trying her hardest to help me. I should put more effort myself.’
Turning to the unicorn, he paused; Lyra had fallen asleep on him, sounding off small, squeaky snores. Smiling at her, he lifted her, carefully walking her up the stairs to her room. He gently placed her down, pulling the coverings over her before going back downstairs.
“I suppose I’m taking the couch tonight.”
His plans involved talking to Lyra about the princess’s demands, hoping to find out as much as he could. If he was going to get a job, he may as well find something he could do without any problems.
It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep, the day’s exhaustion sweeping over 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
“How’s the situation?”
“Sir, he’s currently in Ponyville under the careful watch of Lyra. She is, as of now, taking him around and introducing him to the population there, sir. And… I think the other group may be onto us, sir.”
“Very well. Keep a careful eye on him. We don’t want the other group interfering with our plans.”
“And what happens if they do interfere, sir?”
“Then we’ll deal with the human. He’s to keep out of reach of them at all costs, do you hear me?”
“Sir, yes sir!”
“You have your orders… dismissed.”
~End Chapter Eight~
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Oooooo, so ominous
That seemed to go well. Keep up the good work. I look forward to reading the next chapter.
Hmm.
I wonder who is tailing him.
I hope he starts feeling better soon.
10060398
Guards. Guard factions. We've seen this signaled miles in advance. It's why the Princesses keep talking about their fractious, rebellious guards. It so that when some guards eventually do something dramatic, stupid and wildly contrived to mess with Anon, we the readers will perhaps be a little more likely to swallow it. Because every HiE story needs some contrived drama.
I could swear I read this a long time ago and there were chapters after this where the Princesses find out their mistake and immediately attempt to correct how badly they screwed up...
10062403
HiE needs contrived drama about as often as other stories.
10063896
#1 It's possible the Author decided to revamp the story. I've seen this happen before.
#2 Someone could have created something similar.
The drama is getting a bit contrived
10085146
problem is not a lot of writers are willing or determined enough to dedicate their time to write masterpieces.
My welcome. :3
10359364
or maybe people dont have hours every day to spend writing when they need to eat and pay rent.
I was so intrigued with the story, I didn’t even notice how damn long the chapter was 💀.