An Alien Walks Amongst Us: C.S.E. - Part Three

Chapter Seventeen – Out In The Open

The sounds of chirping crickets and hooting owls were the only things noticeably active. It had gotten fairly dark, but the light of the fire kept their little camp well lit. A shiver ran through Lyra’s body; noticing the fire growing dim, she levitated wood into it and shot a small spell to help ignite it. A whoosh of flames was the result, giving her the heat she desired.

Looking around, Lyra took a glance at everypony currently sleeping. Only a few hours ago they were active and talking, passing stories to one another while sharing laughs and scares. It felt more like the six of them were camping than trying to go out on a rescue mission. It was fun, in its own way. Lyra made sure not to stop any of it, remembering Octavia’s previous words.

Sighing, she took a glance at Bon Bon, soundlessly asleep. Lyra hadn’t joined in with the activities around the fire, only including herself when the others sought to, the others somehow missing Lyra’s mood. She was still too lost in her thoughts, unsure what had happened a few hours ago.

‘Why would Bon Bon like Anon?’ Lyra was terribly confused. ‘I’m sure she knows I like him, right? So if what she said in the forest made any sense…’

She was struggling hard with herself, trying to think of anything that would connect what she had heard.

‘When did this all start? When could this have first happened?’

Lyra thought about past events, connecting things to the best of her ability.

‘Was it when I was trying to get the two of them to be closer together as friends?’

Lyra had remembered talking to Anon privately a few times about it, knowing he was having problems with her friend such as her completely shutting him out.

‘But that couldn’t be it. No, there has to be more to this. Just how could she go from ignoring him to liking him in such a way?’

A sudden thought struck her, her ears popping up in the air in realization. Then, they flattened against her head. “Oh…”

It was the month that she wasn’t around Anon. A whole month with him and Bon Bon, spending their time together constantly on a daily basis, forming strong, fascinating connections with one another. They were together for every morning, for their lunches, after work, even special outings like going to the park while Lyra was left out of it all.

‘Is… Is that what really happened? Did Bon Bon get a hold of Anon while I was in the background? But is that enough time for something like this to happen, for them to connect so closely?’ Lyra hung her head down. ‘Who am I to argue with that… the same thing happened to me.’

Everything that had happened with them in the previous month kept appearing in her head: all the times she saw them hugging, talking, or going out. She was left out of everything, and this was what had happened as a result.

Looking over at Bon Bon, Lyra could see a small smile appear on her face as she rolled away from her. She wiped her eyes, doing her best to hold back from crying.

“Lyra—”

That startled her, making her jump from the log she was sitting at. She immediately powered her horn up, aiming it at… Octavia? The mare stood there, blinking at Lyra calmly. It took the shooken pony a few moments to realize her horn was lit up still, aimed at her friend. Breathing slowly to calm herself, she negated the magic in her horn, letting the spell dissipate.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” she apologized.

“No, I shouldn’t have walked up on you like that, so I’m the one that should be apologizing.”

“Um… Okay then. So why are you awake right now?”

“Do you not recall? I am the next watcher while you get some sleep.” She walked over to Lyra, nudging her in the side. Lyra got up as Octavia took her place. “I am a light sleeper, much like you and Bon Bon, or did you forget our time at the academy?”

“N-No, I remember well.”

She gave her a nod, and then looked at Lyra’s sleeping bag. “You best get some shuteye before the dawn breaks through.”

“Right,” she replied, walking to her bag.

Slipping inside, she tried to get as comfortable as she could on the ground as she stared into the fire. Watching the embers spark, they helped her forget her worries. The crackling of the wood eased the mare into a lull that soon found her fast asleep.

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Lyra awoke with a fright, feeling something jabbed into her side. Fearing something was trying to eat her, she snapped her eyes open, kicking with all her might, trying to get whatever was attacking her. That did no good as her hooves met no resistance. Cloud Chaser was quite lucky for that, otherwise, she would be walking with a limp for the rest of the day.

“Hey sleepyhead!” she greeted Lyra with a load of pep. “Rise and shine! Time to get up!”

The pegasus flew away to a log her sister was sitting on before Lyra could respond. Yawning, Lyra slipped out of her bag and stood up, stretching her body out. Looking down at her bag, she quickly folded it up nice and neat before tying it back into one of her saddlebags. Finished with that, she looked at the campfire and saw Octavia walking toward her.

“Good morning, Lyra.”

“Morning,” Lyra greeted back with a nod.

“I hope you slept well last night.”

“Yeah, just need to get some kinks out of my side but I’m certain they’ll be gone when we continue into the forest.”

“Right,” Octavia said before moving closer to Lyra. “So, Lyra… are you doing okay?”

Lyra wasn’t sure what Octavia meant with that. “Yes? I guess so. Why are you asking me this?”

“Last night when I got up and went over to take your watch, you looked troubled. I don’t know, it looked like something you might want to talk about.”

She shook her head, looking back at Octavia. “It’s nothing; I was just lost in thought about something.”

“If you say so,” Octavia said before nudging her head at the fire. “You should hurry and get some food before it gets cold.”

“Okay,” Lyra replied, walking toward the fire. Taking a seat by the logs, Vinyl levitated a rock that had some cooked eggs on it. She stared at it, sighing.

“No one thought to bring any dishes, did they?”

“Nope,” Vinyl replied with a mouthful of food. “So I just took some rocks, cut them with my magic, and cleaned them all up!”

“Reminds me of when we got lost in the woods during that trip in the academy, right Lyra?” Bon Bon said, taking a seat beside her. “Lots of screaming and jumping at shadows.”

“Um… yeah, right…”

“Gah!” Octavia exclaimed, looking at Bon Bon. “I remember we were out there for three days straight! I nearly missed my important recital practice for the orchestra that was playing for the king of Gryphonia!”

“Oh yeah!” Vinyl sputtered, spewing some food in the direction of Octavia who jolted to the side. “You were having such a spaz attack the entire time! Oh boy, that was hilarious!”

“I was worried that I would’ve missed such a big opportunity, something that would’ve determined my entire career; my whole life, hanging in the balance because of you idiots and your decision to go find that stupid rabbit myth!”

“And look how that ended,” Vinyl said, poking a wooden fork she had made at Octavia. “The king couldn’t even make it due to some weird junk that was happening in his kingdom. I forget what it was about though.”

“Oh! I heard about that,” Flitter chirped in. “I think it was something about their borders being in complete chaos for almost an entire month.”

“Huh. Well, whatever it was, we wound up getting out of there by tree express!” Vinyl threw a hoof in the air, making a swoosh sound. “That thing sure did fly!”

“What, that was you guys?!” Cloud Chaser squeaked out. “I remember hearing about that. That thing was seen flying past Cloudsdale!”

“That sure was a whole mess of fun!” Vinyl said with a laugh. “Octavia wouldn’t stop screaming for a single second!”

“I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!”

Vinyl and Octavia started to bicker at one another as the other four laughed at the scene. Lyra watched the entire scene with a small smile, remembering that event clearly. Looking to her side, she remembered Bon Bon’s part in it fondly, tying everypony together to the log. Staring at her friend as she laughed with the others, her smile slowly dropped, looking down at the eggs on her rock.

They eventually returned back to their meals, trying to get warm by the fire before heading out.

Lyra turned her head to Lyra, thinking it’d be a good idea to mention something, “Hey Bon Bon…?”

“Hmm?” She turned to her, a fork in her mouth.

“If, well… um… Well, if you ever have anything that you need to talk to me about, you know I’m here to listen, right?” Bon Bon blinked hearing that. “I mean, if you have anything you’ve wanted to say to me or just need to let out, I’m here to listen.”

She stared at Lyra for a few moments before giving her a small smile. “I appreciate the gesture, Lyra, and if I ever have anything I need to talk about I’ll come straight to you,” she said before going back to her meal.

A flash of emotions mixed around inside of Lyra after hearing that. She looked back at her eggs, swirling them around.

‘Maybe she’s waiting for a good time to say something to you?’ a familiar voice told her. ‘Try not to act out irrationally at her words.’

‘But from how it sounded last night, she’s been waiting for a good while to say anything at all. So what is she waiting this long for?’

Lyra could feel a thump on her side, forcing her from her thoughts. Looking over, she could see Vinyl poking her with her fork into her side. “Yes?”

“I asked what our plans are going into this forest.”

“Plans?”

It took her a moment to realize what Vinyl had meant. Placing her rock down on the log, she levitated the map to her, spreading it out in the air. The others stopped eating and came over, looking up at it.

“Okay, we are currently here,” Lyra pointed at the map, “and obviously we want to be here,” she said, trailing her hoof across the map. “Because of the information that Bon Bon procured, we can plan around some of the more dangerous places where the Beasts of Dourness are known to congregate.”

“I’m sorry, what did you just call them?” Cloud Chaser asked.

“It’s what the natives have been calling them. Just think of them as normal creatures or animals, but with weird mutations on them. Like a snake with two heads for instance.”

“That would be so cool to see,” Cloud Chaser commented, lost in her head about what she could see in the forest.

“Um… this looks like a really long distance to travel,” Flitter commented.

“It’ll take some time getting there,” Lyra said. “And we’ll have to make sure not to come across any posts the rebels have set up out here in this forest. We got the information on their location already, which I’ve marked in red here, here, and here,” she told them, pointing at the map in their areas. “So we’re going to go around these posts, in this trail I’ve already marked.”

“Won’t that mean it’ll take a bit longer than just going straight to the base?” Cloud Chaser asked as she leaned on Lyra’s shoulder, looking at the map.

“The time spent going around the posts is time we’ll be saving than having to deal with the rebels. Though we’re more likely to be met with the creatures in this forest, it’s safer than dealing with the rebels, especially since there are two groups of them to watch for. I’d assume that it could take anywhere from three to five days to get there, though if we hustle we could be there faster.”

“What?!” Cloud Chaser hollered, looking at the map. “But with how you have it mapped out, we should only be there in two days.” The others looked at Cloud Chaser, confused. “I know a thing or two about mapping, okay? I know what I’m talking about.”

Lyra shook her head at Cloud Chaser, “I’m estimating the time based on us going around the posts and any unmarked paths that we come across, along with if we at all need to backtrack or have to slow down for any reason.” She rolled up the map, placing it back into her pack. “I certainly would like it to be only two days to get there.”

“Same here,” Bon Bon agreed with a nod. “We should hurry up then with our meals and head out soon. We have a long day ahead of us.”

The others agreed, heading back to their logs to finish eating. Lyra picked up her own rock of food and started to eat quietly in thought. While she couldn’t figure out why Bon Bon hadn’t said anything about last night, she would rather get a move on toward Anon. That was their main priority right then above everything else. She would just have to think about things with her friend on the way there.

The six of them took no time finishing their meals and packing up. After extinguishing their fire, Lyra took the lead into the forest with the five following close behind.

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‘Why can’t things be simple for once?’

Anon had noticed that there was a changing of the guards that night, two ponies that were extremely wary of him, having been two of the ponies he had previously confronted. It certainly made sleeping easier for him not having to deal with two annoyances all night, even though it was on the ground with a thin mattress, thin pillow, and a blanket. The moment he woke up though, he was met with the very creepy smiles of the previous guards staring at him through the bars. He nearly screamed in fright from how horrifying they looked.

That, apparently, was them trying to appear nice; it obviously didn’t work.

After calming down, the two went about giving Anon a fairly good breakfast: eggs, toast, a proper bowl of oatmeal, and even some OJ, freshly squeezed. He was surprised by the turnabout from the other day, but he was certainly not complaining.

Of course, the guards wouldn’t leave him alone. Their attempt at appearing ‘nice’ to him was their way of trying to butter up. They, of course, wanted to talk more about the other day, concerned about what he had brought up. They had also brought a pack of Skip-Bo cards because of course, they did. Anon was surprised seeing that they were identical to his worlds, and soon enough, a few games had gone by.

The two had been asking some questions they had been thinking hard on after their talk the other day. The questions on that topic were slow, as they were more enjoying the game more than really doing their job.

“So how about this?” Rocky said, placing down a card. “What if the unicorns made little magic baubles that could hold their magic, which we could then use for food. Would that work?”

Anon, placing a twelve down and discarding that pile, drew another five while thinking on the question.

“That would still require a lot of unicorns to make work, if not all of them. They’d also have to continuously make containers constantly, little to no breaks and no life, just to make the amount needed.” From what Lyra had taught him on magic, that kind of task would need everyone on deck at all times to make work. “It’d be the same result as enslaving them to work on food making only now you have to train them to store magic.”

He seemed dejected hearing that, still trying to figure out some way to make it work. “Maybe… Hmmm….”

Roller placed a nine down, then discarding a card into a pile, ended his turn. “What if Princess Luna was to do the farming!”

“Oooh, yeah! That could work!”

Anon gave them a deadpan stare, “Do you really think your own ruler, who has to deal with plenty of other things, could find the time do to all that work herself even if she wanted to?”

The two of them got into thinking poses, mulling over the question. Anon yawned, looking at his hand; saving two Skip-Bo’s and a one, he had the game in the bag.

“Even if the food was somehow figured out, along with figuring out how to get all the ponies to deal with living at night, there’s still needing to deal with all the beings that aren’t ponies, such as the griffons, minotaurs, dragons, camels, donkeys, dragons, and who knows what else. They’re not going to like you fellas screwing up the world that they also live in.”

“But we have a great guard to help with that!” Roller said. “And we even have the Elements! Surely they’ll help us if anything happens, right?”

Anon scoffed, “You’re joking. If it hasn’t occurred to you, it’s not Princess Luna that wants eternal night but that weird symbiotic host that had her, Nightmare Moon.”

Lyra had gone into explicit detail explaining that the two entities were not the same being, just so he didn’t mistakenly offend the princess when he had finally met her.

“So for your plan of eternal night work at all, you’d need Nightmare Moon, not Princess Luna. Even if you somehow managed to get that symbiote in the picture, if you could even locate it, the first thing it would do once in power is lock up those Elements up so they couldn’t fight her back as they did before. Oh, and to top that off, you’d only have half a guard to work with since the day guard would be disbanded as a result of all of this. And that’s even if the night guard sticks around and doesn’t fight back as well as it’s their princess they’re loyal to, not Nightmare Night.”

The moment that Rocky ended his turn, Anon placed down his one and then his two Skip-Bo cards in a row before he dusted off his hands. The other two frowned at his play.

“You’re really good at this,” Roller said, grabbing the cards before shuffling them.

“None of this makes sense to me,” Anon said, watching the cards being shuffled by hooves, which weirded him out. “Your group wants eternal night, but you’d need Nightmare Moon for that. But you’d have to turn Luna to get that, and I don’t think that’s possible at any time in the near future without her allowing it to happen, and from what little I’ve garnered she’d rather step down than let that happen. It’s kind of why I think your group, or at least your leader is after something else.”

Rocky looked at Roller with some concern on his face as Roller passed the cards out. “So you think we might be getting tricked? Or maybe everypony is in on this besides us two?”

“I don’t like that, Rocky…”

“It’s possible,” Anon said, looking at his hand. He frowned, noticing the crap hand he was dealt. “But it’s also possible the leader is the only one misleading you all, including Liberum and Colibri.”

“Let’s just say you’re right about all this. What do you think our leader is trying to do?” Rocky asked as he got his cards ready. “I mean, if he’s the one doing all of this, what’s he after?”

“What else would a villain want?” Anon shook his head, discarding a ten to end his turn. “I think the guy’s trying to get power himself, or whoever is leading him. It would explain why none of this makes sense, as I don’t see any way for anyone to remove Celestia or Luna from power.”

“So you think our leader wants power? And that he’s trying to get it by removing Princess Celestia?”

“How would that work, Rocky?”

“Maybe he has some special device to do that? Or a magical artifact that can control Princess Luna some way?”

“I don’t know of any artifacts that aren’t already locked up that could do that. Even some powerful and cursed amulets and artifacts wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a win to power.”

“Ugh! But why would he try and make it like he wants Princess Luna in power? Alien, do you have any idea?”

Anon sighed, readjusting himself as he tried to get comfortable. He looked at his hand, then discarded an eight. “First off, my name is Anon, not alien. Second, it’s kind of getting tiring with all these questions. Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask someone in charge of this stuff?”

The two of them looked at one another, and then back to Anon. “Well,” Rocky started, “when we first joined, we actually had some questions like these but nopony could or was willing, to answer them. Everypony either ignored us or changed the topic.”

“Eventually,” Roller continued off, “we just stopped asking and figured it would all work out in the end. But with you here discussing this kind of stuff and all… we think we probably should’ve kept asking.”

“So you two just want answers to things and I’m the only one that you can discuss this?”

They both bobbed their heads up and down with a smile. “Since we’re watching you anyway, why not talk about things as well?” Rocky said with a grin.

“We were originally just going to ask you things anyways about being an alien, like walking on two legs all day long or how it feels with no fur, but this is just as good.”

“Plus, you’re an alien! Even if it wasn’t about anything when’s the next chance we’ll talk to one?!”

“Probably not for a very long time, I’d reckon.”

“So let me get this straight,” Anon said, finally playing out his hand and drawing another five. “You two originally wanted to talk to me for no other reason than I’m an alien?”

“You’ve also brought up things we were previously interested in, so that’s another thing!” Roller reached behind himself, inside of a pack he had by him before throwing it into Anon’s cell. “Of course, we can also provide some things… if it’ll help you talk with us…”

Anon looked at the item, and then back to Roller. “Is that a brownie…?”

“Yes, yes it is.”

“And if we need to… sweeten the deal…” And now it was Rocky’s turn to shove something in from out of nowhere. It was a cup completely filled to the brim with milk.

“How’d you manage not to spill that?”

“I’m just that good.”

Anon placed his face into the palms of his hands at their shenanigans.

‘How did these two wind up here as guards?’

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Lyra had forgotten how intimidating the forest could be. Granted, she had only been out there once, and it was only for a few short hours, but still. While it didn’t have the foreboding feeling that the Everfree gave off, it still made her uncertain of what was to come; case in point, Sappy from before. Luckily, none of them had met anything bad so far, just an innumerable amount of trees and other things one would expect in a forest, along with a ton of noises that easily unnerved everyone.

The six of them had grouped in twos to help watch one another’s sides in case anything happened. As it would go, Flitter was with her sister, Vinyl was with Octavia… and Lyra was with Bon Bon. She had been beside her most of the trip, throwing a few words whenever Lyra had checked the map for anything or for direction on where to go.

It had been several hours since their last stop for lunch. Lyra had a good amount of time to stew around in her thoughts about Bon Bon. She still wasn’t sure what to do, or say. She had been attempting to slip in little questions to her pertaining to Anon. Bon Bon sidestepped most of the questions, turning it around to Lyra’s thoughts. Of course, she had plenty to say about that, but it still upset her Bon Bon wasn’t opening up about what Lyra had heard the other night. Why wasn’t she taking the hint?

Lyra had put out so many tells that the only thing left was to outright ask her about it. Though she felt it would be better if Bon Bon initiated things, Lyra wasn’t sure she would. Was she nervous about it? Surely they could have a civilized talk, right?

‘Maybe she’s waiting to talk to Anon first,’ the voice in her head said.

Lyra realized what that could mean. ‘Is… is she trying to get a chance to talk to him first before me so she can be with him?’

Looking at Bon Bon, she continued walking beside Lyra, right then stepping over a large branch lying in their path before continuing on. She looked behind her, noticing the other four babbling to one another about something or another.

‘You should talk to her without the others around to try and get some privacy.’

She was Lyra’s bestest best friend in the world, which made it hard to deal with this at all, so she didn’t want to blow up on her on something this sensitive, even if it was painful to hold back.

‘Yeah, surely we can talk about this later on without me doing something stupid, right?’

“HIT THE DECK!”

Lyra slammed her body into the ground without a thought after hearing Bon Bon scream out. A pink blur sailed right over their heads, trying to slam into their group. Instead, it slammed into a tree nearby.

Getting up, Lyra neared to the others who had already huddled together, getting ready for what was attacking them.

“What in the hay was that?!” Flitter screamed, looking around nervously.

“It looked like a pink manticore!” Vinyl answered back. “Lyra, do you know anything about them here?”

“I didn’t even know they came in pink!”

“So we just so happened to come across the only pink manticore in all of Equestria out here?” Octavia asked, staring warily at the manticore that was standing back up.

It gave them a really wide smile, wider than should be possible even for a manticore, as it showcased its row of razor-sharp teeth. The six of them shuddered.

“We’re not going to fight that manticore,” Lyra told them in a low whisper. “We… are going… to run away from it…”

“And how exactly do we do that?” Octavia asked quietly. “We have to get past that manticore to continue forward don’t we?”

“Maybe we can distract it somehow?” Vinyl joined in. “Then we can get around it and hightail it out of here!”

“Sounds good, but what do we do to distract it?” Bon Bon piped in, sliding in.

“Why are we all whispering?” Flitter asked. “Also, why hasn’t the manticore tried anything yet?”

They all slowly turned their heads to the manticore, who gave them all another large grin. It continued standing there, staring at them all.

“It must be toying with us,” Lyra answered. “Remember, it’s part cat, so it likes to play with its prey.”

“I hate being a prey animal,” Bon Bon harrumphed out.

“Don’t worry girls!” Cloud Chaser said with loud glee. “I’ve got the perfect distraction!”

She took flight above them, holding a jar filled with a yellow liquid.

“W-What the hay?!” Lyra was astonished seeing that. “Please tell me you haven’t been saving up your pee this entire time!”

“Nah,” Flitter responded, “that’s just Celestia’s Pee!”

Everyone’s eyes were on Cloud Chaser, jaws dropped to the ground.

“H-How did you manage to collect her pee?” Lyra said.

“WHY did you collect her pee?!” Octavia asked incredulously.

Cloud Chaser looked angered. “It’s not her pee! Stop calling it that, Flitter!”

She angrily threw the bottle at the manticore, shattering it at the ground and splattering the beast with whatever the concoction was. The manticore immediately dropped to the ground, wailing in agony, trying to rub itself in the dirt. The group quickly understood why it was acting that way as the smell of the extremely pungent liquid hit their nostrils.

“Now’s our chance!” Cloud Chaser screamed, flying behind them and shoving the group past the preoccupied manticore who continued to flop around the ground, trying to get rid of the smell. “Let’s get out of here!”

The manticore roared, clearly not happy with its current situation. The six blasted past it and through the trees, running for their lives from the very enraged creature that smelled strongly of terrible, terrible pee.

Somehow, Lyra had ended up in the back of the pack, watching the other five jumping over logs and rocks while diving through bushes without a care. Lyra kept checking behind herself, spotting the mad beast still hot on their tails as it roared at them.

Starting up a quick spell, she threw a large beam at a tree she was passing by, hoping it would slow the manticore down. The pink beast flew right over the tree in its way, though it did slow it down minutely. Lyra continued blasting more of the trees around, hoping to further slow down its progress on her. It did nothing to deter its snarling and speed.

Lyra spotted a rope, somehow slung to a tree in a peculiar manner. The manticore got a leg stuck inside of it, a branch quickly flinging it off into the air and out of the area. She looked ahead at Bon Bon who gave Lyra a large smile. It was quickly replaced with shock; looking behind her, Lyra saw the manticore was once again back on their tails as if it had teleported to them.

Bon Bon tried a few more attempts, yet no matter how she managed to throw the thing off their tracks, it somehow came back each time. Lyra wasn’t sure how long they had been running, certain though it must have been miles. Her heart was racing like crazy, her entire body covered in sweat and nearly on the brink of collapse from how exhausted she felt. But she continued on, knowing that to stop would invite herself into the belly of the beast, quite literally.

Lyra had to stop using her magic trying to stop the thing, starting to feel dizzy from overusing it too much. This granted the manticore to catch up to them all. It was so close, she could feel the roaring from it through her body.

‘It can’t end like this, can it?! I’m supposed to die of old age, or possibly from a binge on smoothies, not like this! There’s so much to do with my friends and Anon still!’

The manticore’s head was only a hoof away from her tail; she could feel its breath coming on her. She doubled her efforts, trying to get further away, not wanting its teeth sinking into her flank.

Without warning, the pink manticore slid to a halt. Lyra only noticed this as she was in the back and felt it wasn’t breathing on her anymore. Looking back, she could see it slowly falling from view as it sat on the ground, watching them. She could barely make it out, but the thing gave her a wink before whisking away like smoke. So completely flabbergasted by this, she didn’t even notice the others had stopped in front of her.

With her current speed, she rammed into the other five, forcing them down a very large hill. They all screamed out, balled up and now rolling down said hill. Eventually, the six of them collided against something that forced them to an immediate stop. They all laid there on the ground, groaning in pain.

“Is… Is the m-manticore gone?” Flitter asked, her head swirling about.

“I think so,” Vinyl answered before wobbly standing up. “Ugh, that’s certainly not something I found myself enjoying. We should keep an eye out just in case it decides to come back. Oooh, I hope my equipment wasn’t too damaged from that tumble.”

“My cello!” Octavia yelped out, jumping to her hooves. She immediately dropped back to the ground head first, still dizzy.

“Maybe you should take it slow, Octavia,” Vinyl said to the now groaning mare.

“Where are we anyway?” Flitter asked.

They all looked around, curious about their current location. Lyra could recognize the place immediately even if she hadn’t been there before. “We’re at one of the outposts that are marked on the map.”

“Weren’t we trying to avoid this place?” Bon Bon asked.

“Yes, we are,” Lyra answered.

It seemed that when they rolled down the hill, the six of them collided against an outpost tower coincidentally.

“It doesn’t look like anypony’s been here in a while,” Cloud Chaser said, flying around the building. “I wonder why that is.”

“M-Maybe they’re on patrol?” Flitter tried to answer.

Vinyl walked up to the open door, peering inside. “I don’t think so, fellas. This place looks like it’s been abandoned for a good while now, so I doubt we’ll be seeing any of those rebel ponies anytime soon.”

Looking inside the building, Lyra could see Vinyl walking to the staircase that led up to another floor. Cloud Chaser came from it, flying into the middle of the room, picking up all the mountain of dust from it into the air. The others ran back out, trying to clear their lungs out. Cloud Chaser flew from the top of the building, slowly lowering herself toward the group with a sheepish grin.

“Hehehe… sorry.”

Lyra gave her a small glare, still coughing about. Bon Bon walked to the building, looking in. “This doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “I thought these outposts would be full of guards, so why’d they abandon this place?”

“Maybe they’re all on patrol?” Flitter tried to answer again.

“All at the same time? And why would this place be so dusty?” Bon Bon walked back to the group, thinking about things. “This place obviously hasn’t been visited in a while.”

“There were a lot of outposts on the map, so who’s to say they could even have enough ponypower to fill them up,” Vinyl commented. “Hay, they could also just decided to not enter the building itself. The area does seem like it’s been used from the burnt campfire I see.”

“Place still looks like it hasn’t seen a visitor in some time,” Octavia added in. “Perhaps a good few weeks, a month at most.”

“Yeah, that could be it,” Lyra said, just getting her throat cleared. “I think it might be a better idea to stick with the outposts, now that we’ve seen what’s out there in terms of creatures. If we do come across any guards at any of the outposts we can probably handle them better than the manticore from before.”

“I like the outpost idea as well, fighting off ponies is definitely better than whatever else is out here,” Bon Bon said, right before chuckling. “That sure was an odd one though. What’s the likelihood of seeing that manticore again?”

“I wouldn’t know, but right before I crashed into all of you, I saw the pink manticore winking at me before vanishing.”

“It’s weird it would wink at you,” Octavia commented in a mumble. “Was it simply messing with us?”

“Vanishing?” Flitter said, tilting her head. “So it was super fast? Was it really just toying with us then?”

“If it was superfast it would have already gotten to us when we ran from it,” Cloud Chaser said.

“No, when I said vanishing, I mean by using magic, in a cloud of pink smoke,” Lyra said.

That got the group's attention. “I now fully agree to go to the posts from now on,” Cloud Chaser said. “I don’t mind fighting the guards, or even manticores if needed, but not pink, magic-using manticores.”

They all nodded their heads in agreement. Taking out her map, Lyra looked to see if she could identify where they were. The others closed in to see as well.

“So if I had to guess where we are now, I’d have to say it’s probably this outpost,” Lyra pointed out. “So we just need to head directly to the second post. We should be able to get there before it gets dark.” She rolled up the map, placing it back in the pack. “This will cut our time down by a large amount so long as nothing happens along the way.”

“Should we check the tower for anything important?” Flitter asked. “We might find something in there we could use.”

“No, anything left behind would be of no use to us,” Lyra said. “I doubt there’s anything of value to take and they wouldn’t just leave info about their plans behind.”

“So we should be going then,” Bon Bon said, walking beside Lyra.

“If you all don’t mind, I need to fix my cello first,” Octavia said, sitting on the ground with her cello case opened up. She turned to Vinyl, “Hey, can you come over here? I need your help with this.”

“Sure!” she replied, trotting to her. “Is it something wrong with the lightning box inside? Or maybe it’s—” Octavia interrupted Vinyl by pulling out some of her hair, which was soon followed by Vinyl screaming out, holding her head. “W-W-WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!”

“I need some of your hair to make a new string.”

“BUT WHY MY HAIR?!”

“Because the other strings are made from your hair, remember? So I wanted them to match.”

“Next time, ASK ME!”

“Very well,” Octavia said nonchalantly, going back to making the string.

Lyra never understood how Octavia was capable of making strings without any equipment, wondering how she was trained to do that or if she learned that on her own. Sitting down, Lyra took out her water and tried to relax for the moment.

‘This is going to take a while,’ she thought to herself, knowing they couldn’t move on without Octavia finishing her work.

“Vinyl, I need some more hair.”

“WHYYYYYYYY?!”

“I need strong hair, and I only got a few good strands that I can actually use. If you’d just take better care of your mane…”

The two started to bicker back and forth as the others in the group sat beside Lyra, trying to relax as well.

‘Yep, a good time to relax as any I suppose.’

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 regretted many things in his life: smoking, skipping classes or spending his very first paycheck on nothing but ramen noodles. These were things that stayed with him and reminded him to do better, to correct his course of future actions from such idiotic mistakes. Funnily enough, he could now add another thing to that long list of things he kept in the back of his head of regrets: ever talking to the guards.

Standing in front of him was none other than the prick, Liberum.

Fun little thing that wasn’t so much fun that happened, after talking to the guards, they thought it would be a good time to bring up these things with some others. And now Liberum was here as a result of that.

“I’m going to ask you once more,” he said with his forever frown. “Why are you filling our guard’s heads with this nonsensical drivel?”

Anon couldn’t help but let out a tired sigh as he stood across from the pony behind the bars. “Why does it matter what I say to them? It’s not like you really care about those two from what I’ve seen.”

His frown only deepened, “I care about my guards being manipulated.”

“Yeah, the problem there is I’m not manipulating them. I’m just speaking my mind about this whole situation, which I find completely absurd. Expecting Princess Luna to rule over the lands, especially the way you are going about it, is a plan destined for failure.”

The pony looked at Anon as if he was an imbecile. “I’m certain whatever our commander has planned will work out in the end. As for you, you are not here to chat up our guards but to act as a negotiation piece against Princess Celestia. After the negotiations, you will be given back, simple as that.”

Anon, disliking how he was being treated, decided to push some buttons, “Do you really think something this stupidly planned will work? Using me as a bargaining tool doesn’t make any sense. Expecting Celestia to step down makes even less sense. And thinking your plan for the ENTIRE population of the planet will go smoothly is foolish.”

If it was at all possible, Liberum’s frown grew further down his face. Anon knew his face was going to feel sore in the morning. “Not that it’s any of your business, but our commander has everything under control with his plans he has meticulously kept with for many years. It is not I nor anypony else’s place to question his plans.”

“None of my business he says,” Anon said, barking out a laugh. “You just want to keep yourself convinced this is all a good idea. And you have no proof of it at all it is, do you? How are you and your lot going to put Luna in power? She didn’t even want to have eternal night, the little pest that was Nightmare wanted that. Are you honestly sure of things, or are you following blindly like a fanatical nutjob?”

Liberum snarled at Anon, slamming the bars of the cell. “I have no reason to question my betters. They are convinced that Princess Celestia has her sister entrapped in a terrible situation, having come out of her sentence and it is up to us to free her from it!”

“Yes, she has her in the palms… ehr, the… middle of her hooves? I don’t know how to interpret that stupid saying.” Anon shook his head. “I don’t even know why this is being discussed. I really don’t care what you guys wind up doing. It’s not going to work anyway, the whole thing is too terribly flawed that anyone with a brain and a moment’s thought would pick apart whatever your lot told them. Those two guards before? Did you actually hear what I said to them?”

“I heard plenty.”

“And even after listening to all of that, you’re not going to question your superiors?”

Liberum snorted with a shake of his head. “Colibri would never allow such a thing to happen, so if he says it’s true, then I know it to be true.”

He was getting terribly tired of the conversation. He rubbed his forehead, “So your commander has plans for the things I mentioned, some kind of way to shackle the entire populace of the world coming after you all for this? You are certain they can keep the ponies from being ghosted, dusted out on route ‘Questria?”

The pony opened his mouth and then closed it. “I’m certain Colibri has a plan for things.”

Anon looked at him with a small smirk, “But Colibri isn’t in charge. He’s just a second to your leader that’s orchestrating it all.” He snorted, “Colibir’s probably a pawn in whatever game your leader’s playing.”

Liberum harrumphed, “Colibri is capable of making his own decisions,” he said with his head held high. “Whether it’s leading himself or ordering your capture, he knows what he’s doing.”

“Yeah, sure. Just face it; you don’t know how anything will work because your leader never planned for it to work. He’ll take what he’s after while your lot is led around in circles, Colibri leading that charge. But, go ahead. Continue believing that this all will probably work out, that Colibri is probably not a pawn and is probably not going to be thrown away at the last second and probably won’t lead to the eventual doom of everything you know.”

“Our… Our leader wouldn’t just get rid of Colibri. He’s too important to all this!”

“Important to you? Sure, I can see that. But your leader? You don’t think he wouldn’t just toss him aside if it benefited him? That’s what villains do, buckaroo. It wouldn’t matter if he had to rid of all of you, Colibri included, so long as he wins in the end.”

“You’re wrong. There’s, we’re all integral in this! Our leader wouldn’t just use us for such iniquitous deeds.”

“You sure aren’t sounding very certain anymore. Are you finally realizing that there is no real plan in all of this?”

Anon got close to the bars, sticking his head up against them and looking down at the pony.

“I’d seriously rethink things through, little pony. You’re being led astray from your flock by a wolf, garbed in false righteousness and sweet little lies. And you and Colibri will find yourselves led willingly down the belly of the beast soon enough…”

The pony seemed disturbed, concerned by Anon’s words. He refused to reply, instead opting to leave out the door as fast as he possibly could. Anon stood back up with his arms crossed, looking calm. On the inside though, he was cheering himself on.

‘Hell yeah, I sounded awesome! I swear I could have won an Oscar right there!’

Hearing some noises, Anon eventually saw the return of the previous two guards that had gotten him into the previous mess. “I’d have expected Liberum would have changed the guard out since he thinks I’m trying to manipulate you two for some reason.”

“We don’t exactly have a lot of guards here,” Rocky replied.

‘Handy info to have.’

“And we were ordered not to talk to you.”

“But we still have some things we’d like to talk to you about, so we’ll keep this between us,” Roller said with a wink. “We’ll just play some,” he winked again, “Skip-Bo,” another wink, “to pass the time,” and once more for good measure.

Anon wiped his face with a palm, letting out a sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. “Just great…”

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

After Octavia got her string fitted onto her cello, the six of them were back to walking, only with a new destination in mind. While it was risky going to another post, what with them being unsure about the rebels being positioned in them, it was definitely a safer alternative to meeting similar creatures in the forest such as the pink manticore from before.

Lyra was feeling paranoid, almost certain that the thing was following them, seeing pink flashes out of the corner of her eyes. She stuck closer to everyone as a result.

None of them had talked once they started walking unless it was to ask a simple question or point something out to the group. They were still too spooked about what had happened previously, fully on guard and alert for anything else. The only thing on their mind was to get to the next post as quickly as possible.

Luckily for them, they hadn’t met any other creatures getting to the post. And it was just starting to get dark once they arrived at it.

‘Perfect timing,’ Lyra thought as she squatted down in a bush with the others.

They all stood outside of the view of the large tower, watching for any signs that there was any activity inside of the place.

“What do you think?” Bon Bon asked.

“Not sure,” Lyra replied, “I haven’t seen anything happen so far.”

Cloud Chaser groaned, “We’ve been sitting in these bushes for almost half an hour. I’m just going to check it real quick so stay here.”

Before any of them could stop her she had already zoomed off to the top of the tower, going inside one of the windows. They all waited patiently, uncertain about what she would find. It didn’t take long for her to return, slowly flying back.

“So?” Vinyl asked.

“It’s empty, completely covered in dust.”

“Not if I have any say about that,” Octavia said, walking toward the post. “Vinyl, hurry up! I’m going to need your magic to clear out all this dust.”

Vinyl let out a low whine, following after Octavia who had already entered the post.

“So what do we do now?” Flitter asked, flying beside her sister.

“Go collect some wood, like last time,” Lyra answered. “Just don’t go too far, we’re not sure what else is out here.”

Cloud Chaser saluted Lyra, Flitter sloppily imitating, before they flew off into the trees. Turning to her side, Lyra saw Bon Bon had already gone toward the post to begin setting up her traps. That left Lyra with helping inside the tower. Walking to the door, she jumped to the side once the door slammed open from a huge wave of wind blasting it.

The wind turned into a miniature tornado of dust that swirled off into the sky before it dispersed itself off into the distance. Turning back to the door, she saw the two ponies coming out for the tower, coughing wildly with their manes sticking up at odd angles.

“Hey Octavia, you’re manes completely wonked out girl,” Vinyl said, still coughing but with a smile. “Should get that checked out at the closest salon.”

“Shut it, Vinyl.”

Shaking her head at them, Lyra walked inside the tower, inspecting it. It was very simple inside with only a few chairs along with a table and a desk remaining inside. There was a fireplace built into the wall, simplifying matters on where to start a fire for them.

Claiming one of the smaller desks that remained, she pulled it to the side and placed her pack down on it. Pulling her map out, she rolled it on the desk and started looking over it as she attempted to make some changes to their route while thinking of any places that she remembered being no-go zones. Lyra also planned to check the documents to see if there was any information on the rebels that matched up to why these posts were empty.

In the background, Vinyl and Octavia continued to bicker, cleaning the place and bringing some furniture down that was upstairs. Cloud Chaser and Flitter soon returned, placing a large pile of wood beside the fireplace. And finally, Bon Bon came in after she finished her traps outside.

With everything finished, they all walked up to Lyra, who was still looking at the map.

“Okay,” she started, “since we’ll be going to their posts instead of avoiding them, I’ve made some changes to where we’ll be going. We should be there much sooner as a result. I’d almost expect us to be there after tomorrow, possibly in the afternoon.”

“That’s great!” Cloud Chaser said, flying above everyone in a swirl. “And then we kick everypony’s butts over there and take Anon back!”

“Hold up on that thought,” Lyra said. “We still need to get there safely. We have to make sure each post we go to is safe and keep away from any rebels. We also need to case out the place a little to see what we’re up against.”

Cloud Chaser groaned at that, only wanting to run in cannon’s a blazing. Lyra decided to pack up her papers along with her map.

“It’ll be nice to be out of the forest for the night,” Bon Bon said. “Flitter, Vinyl, have either of you decided on who will take first watch?”

“Um… no, not r—”

“I’ll take the second watch,” Vinyl said, interrupting Flitter. “I don’t want you waking up for your watch half asleep so you’ll be taking first, okay?”

“Right!” Flitter said enthusiastically, happy in not having to make the decision.

She quickly flew over to her bag, pulling something out from it and started to put it on. Cloud Chaser slapped her forehead as everyone stared at Flitter’s new attire: a completely black, tight-fitting suit.

“Flitter, what are you wearing?” Lyra asked.

“It’s my clothing for when I want to be sneaky,” she said, getting low to the ground. “Now, nopony can see me when I’m on guard.” She started pattering around on the floor extremely quickly, chanting ‘nin, nin, nin,’ over and over.

As she continued to ‘nin’ around the room, everyone slowly turned to Cloud Chaser for an explanation. She raised her hooves in the air at her sister's shenanigans.

“Okay, look, she likes to dress up in things and apparently she brought one of her outfits along with us without me knowing,” she told the group. “Is it really any different from Bon Bon wearing her science coat?”

“…Yes, it is,” Bon Bon answered.

“And what exactly is she dressed up as?” Octavia asked. “And… why is she doing that?”

Flitter ignored the group, still in her own world as she ‘nin’d’ up the walls and the floor.

“She’s a ninja,” Cloud Chaser answered, “and she’s currently in stealth mode right now…”

“Wait, where did she go?” Vinyl asked.

Everypony was now just noticing Flitter wasn’t ‘nin’ing’ anymore and nowhere to be seen.

“Most likely hiding right now,” Cloud Chaser said. “While weird, she’s very serious when it comes to her getup’s and will fit the role she wears. She’ll come out if she’s needed.”

Cloud Chaser’s stomach rumbled right then, a red blush on her face appearing. All their stomachs growled in unison, reminding them all they were hungry.

“Let’s get some food cooking,” Bon Bon said, already by the campfire and throwing wood into it. “I’m starving!”

Vinyl flashed a spell up, lighting the wood on fire. The others quickly joined in helping to prepare the food, with Lyra staring at them, unable to really help with much. Thinking if there was some way to contribute, she looked at them all individually, right before her eyes were directed toward Bon Bon.

‘Now might be a good time to talk to her.’

With nothing that was in danger of getting them at the moment, she thought it would be a good time to talk to her while they were at the post.

“Hey, Bon Bon,” Lyra called out, getting her attention. “I want to talk to you for a moment. In private,” she said, nudging her head toward the door.

She tilted her head in confusion before looking at the others. “We’ll be right back,” she said, placing a rock-plate down, following Lyra.

“Just hurry your butts up or your food’s going to get cold!” Vinyl told them.

The two of them walked outside the post, only going out as far as Lyra though none of them would overhear the two. Thankfully for her, it wasn’t too dark out just yet so they could see where they were walking.

“So what did you want to talk to me about, Lyra?” Bon Bon asked.

‘This is it. Just try and talk to her about this to figure out what’s really up with her and Anon.’

“Lyra?”

“Bon Bon, I… wanted to talk to you about Anon.”

Bon Bon’s previous confusion turned to a small smile, “Is this about all those questions you’ve been asking me along the way?”

“Yeah, they are.”

“If you’re worried about Anon and me, then there’s nothing to worry about. I know I didn’t see him in a good light when he first came here, but we’re very good friends now, Lyra.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Lyra said with a frown.

“…Excuse me?”

“Bon Bon, just how close are you to Anon? You seem to like him more than just a friend.”

She took a step back, “I-I assure you nothing is going on.”

“Really? Nothing at all? So this whole month I’ve been doing things and been away, you haven’t gotten that close to Anon?”

“Just a-as a friend, Lyra!”

“I’ve just had a lot of time thinking back on things, remembering how you’d go out with him at any chance given. I’m not so sure about things between you two now.”

“Lyra, you can’t expect to believe that’s what’s been happening! It’s just two friends doing things with one another! W-Why would you interpret it like that?!”

“I suppose you’re right on that, it would be weird to do so even for me.”

Bon Bon was looking very confused and flustered at the moment. “So what’s with you bringing this up then?”

“Bon Bon… I heard you and Vinyl talking last night.”

She sucked in her breath, freezing on the spot and staring at Lyra with wide eyes. Lyra stared back, waiting for a response. She took her time, trying to process what Lyra had said. Her mouth opened and closed, trying to get something out.

“L-L-Lyra, I—” She took a deep breath, “I-I can explain.”

“Really? How are you going to explain you just lied to me a second ago? Why, Bon Bon? I didn’t expect you of all ponies to be that close to Anon and to lie to me about it. W-Why would you do that?”

Lyra could feel herself tearing up, trying to talk to her. It was a difficult task for the mare not to blow up with her racked emotions. Bon Bon herself was already in tears streaming down her face, dropping down onto the ground.

“I d-d-didn’t want you t-to find out like th—” She hiccuped, wiping her eyes before turning her direction to the ground. “-l-like this.”

A flash of anger hit Lyra. “What in the buck do you mean ‘not like this’? So you were planning on going behind my back with Anon?”

Bon Bon stuttered out, trying to say something.

“I thought we were real close,” Lyra gasped. “I d-didn’t expect you to do something so hurtful. J-Just answer me, why did you try getting with him, even knowing I liked him?”

Bon Bon wasn’t capable of words now, shaking like a leaf in the wind, staring at the ground.

“W-Why’d you have to like Anon?” Lyra asked, choking on air.

Bon Bon didn’t answer.

“W-Why?”

Still no answer.

“WHY?!”

“BECAUSE I WANTED US THREE TO BE TOGETHER!” Bon Bon screamed out, now staring at her while openly crying.

Rattled from being yelled back, Lyra lost her cool. “What the buck are you talking about?! You already live with us! Should I have been clearer about me liking Anon?! IS THAT IT?!”

“How can you be s-s-so s-stupid about this,” Bon Bon stammered out. “I wanted a relationship with us three, b-being together with one another!”

Bon Bon looked up at Lyra, tears still streaming down her face. In Lyra’s anger, she wasn’t taking in what her friend was telling her, only thinking of how Bon Bon tried to take Anon. In her own stupidity, she didn’t think out what she would say next.

“…I only wanted Anon, not you.”

It was like something shattered inside of Bon Bon when she had said that. Her face showed she was in an enormous amount of pain, hearing that. Turning around, she ran away from Lyra and into the tower, crying the entire way there.

Lyra, in her anger, still didn’t comprehend what was spoken to her. In the back of her head, that little voice spoke to her, saying something that would slowly make her realize she had messed up.

‘You’re such a terrible, stupid pony, Lyra.’


~End Chapter Seventeen~









Chapter Eighteen – Crazy Little Thing Called…


Staring at the door Bon Bon just ran in only a few minutes ago, Lyra replayed the words in her head over and over. Something in her words was nagging at her, but in her anger, it just wasn’t coming through clearly. That little voice in her head hadn’t spoken since, even with her trying to will it out, only adding to the seriousness of the situation.

When she had run inside, there was an enormous amount of commotion inside the tower. It only just died down a few moments ago, leaving nothing but the silence of the night. It had a calming effect on her, helping the anger simmer down to allow her to think better. She just needed some time to herself, to think about what just happened.

Wiping her eyes, Lyra noticed the door slowly opening with somepony standing outside of it. She wondered if Bon Bon was really coming back out. Lyra didn’t think it would help the situation at all if she did, only refueling what had happened.

Watching the pony walk over, Lyra quickly recognized that it was Vinyl that came out. Lyra just sat there, watching the unicorn slowly make her way toward her. Only standing a body’s length away from her, Vinyl took a seat on the ground in front of Lyra. She simply stared at her, making Lyra wonder just what she wanted.

“Is there something you need?” Lyra asked grumpily.

“Other than being curious as to why Bon Bon ran in there a few minutes ago?” she asked in return. Lyra let out a snort, turning from her. “So what exactly went down out here? We heard screaming and then saw her running inside, barricading herself in a room.”

“She didn’t tell you guys?”

“No, she came crashing in while crying before running up to the second floor. Octavia is trying to talk to her and I thought I should get your side of things.”

“What exactly is there to get? Bon Bon was trying to get in a relationship with Anon.”

Vinyl merely hummed hearing that. “So she finally came out and told you about her plan?”

“No,” Lyra grunted out, “I confronted her about it just a little bit ago.”

“Oooh. Hold up, then why was she crying? Did you really refuse her?”

“Refuse her? She was trying to take Anon! What in the buck are you talking about?”

“There is no way I can believe she wouldn’t tell you what was up with her and you if she told you about what she was doing. I… I just have to imagine you didn’t think things through before acting, once again.” She raised a hoof before Lyra could reply. “Just tell me exactly what happened.”

“…I confronted Bon Bon about her and Anon. She first tried to say it wasn’t true, but then I told her what I saw last night.”

“Last night?”

“I caught the two of you talking, in the bushes.”

“Oh. I thought I heard somepony crawling through the bushes last night.”

“Don’t think I’m not upset with you too hiding this from me.”

“Are you talking about how Bon Bon likes Anon? Or the fact she also likes you, and for a good long while now.”

“How she li—” It took her a moment to process what she was just told. “What?”

Vinyl sighed, looking tired. “Lyra, didn’t Bon Bon tell you about that? Or did you not listen?”

“I, um, well… She told me about Anon, and then…” Lyra took a second to remember what was said. “I… I think she may have said something about us three being together.”

“Really? How did you reply to that?

‘I only wanted Anon, not you.’

Those words replayed in her head. It’s not like what she said wasn’t true, but the way she had acted and the level of tact she displayed were tremendously poor.

“She… She shouldn’t have been hiding this from my Vinyl.”

“I’ve been telling her that for a good while now.”

“I really dislike how she wanted us three to be together so she could be with Anon. Why didn’t she even try to talk to me about this?”

Vinyl slapped a hoof to her face. “Darn it, Lyra! Did you not listen to what I or she had said?”

“What?”

“She wasn’t doing this for Anon, she was doing it to be with you, you stupid mare!” Vinyl let out a groan, rubbing her forehead. “This would be so much easier if Octavia was talking to you… Okay, so let me get this straight. You blew up on her because you thought she was after Anon. Which is only partially true because she was after you this whole time.”

Lyra wasn’t sure how to reply back to that. “That, that doesn’t, why would she...”

“Lyra, she’s been infatuated with you for a very, very long time now. I don’t even know how long, but I personally knew about it way back in the academy.”

“But… that doesn’t make sense. If she did like me like that, why hasn’t she brought this up before? Bon Bon’s not afraid of saying what’s on her mind.”

“Because whenever she did try to, she would turn into a stuttering mess, clamming right up,” she answered with a shake of her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t even see how bad she has it for you after all these years.”

“This is a bit hard to take in, Vinyl. I just… why would she even like me?”

“Who knows why. I mean, you don’t think things through, you can be very emotional at times, and your obsession with aliens back in the day was very off-putting, though it’s gotten better.” Lyra frowned hearing that. “But for as long as I’ve known her, you’ve had a major effect over her and the things she’s done. That gal’s done a lot just to be with you, Lyra.”

Vinyl had begun a very long list of things that Bon Bon had attempted to tell her about her feelings. All the times they went out during the festivals, all the star watching parties they did together, or even all the Hearts and Hooves days they’ve spent just being with one another, with them spouting about not needing anypony but the two of them.

With each addition to what Vinyl told her, it only made Lyra cringe, realizing how stupid she was throughout all of this.

“But… then why did she want to be with Anon then? That’s still not making any sense to me.”

“She knew you liked Anon, possibly as much as she likes you, though I’m doubtful on that. But she didn’t want you to choose between the two of them. I have a feeling she thought she would be on the losing end of that tug of war for your heart. Bon Bon thought the three of you together were her best chance with you. So for the past month, she was trying to see if it was possible to fall in love with him as you did.”

“...Did she?” Lyra asked quietly.

“That only took her two weeks to see she could have feelings for him before she started developing them,” she answered back with a sigh. “You know how we ponies are, Lyra. We have a lot of room in our hearts. Do you remember that friendship lesson in the academy, the line they had us memorize?”

“‘Friendship is the root of all things good, and should friendship flourish long enough, love is the outcome that binds us together.’ Yes, I remember that.”

Vinyl nodded her head, “Is Bon Bon’s friendship strong enough for you, Lyra, to take it to greater heights?”

“I… I don’t know. This really came out of the blue, being asked if I can love Bon Bon as she does for me.”

Vinyl looked off to the side in thought as Lyra stared down at her hooves, thinking about her argument with Bon Bon. Although Lyra still thought Bon Bon should have talked to her about everything with Anon, she couldn’t help but feel horrible about making her cry.

“I remember having talked o Bon Bon about this relationship deal with the three of you a few times,” Vinyl said, looking at Lyra. “I also remember talking to Anon about your feelings for him once or twice.” Lyra turned to her with shock hearing that. “Yeah, he kind of started to realize you saw him as more than a friend after some time. You really didn’t know about him knowing that?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“It was pretty obvious how you felt about him, almost as obvious as it was Bon Bon had feelings for you. As for Anon, there’s something there, just waiting to blossom for you Lyra, and even for Bon Bon. I’m certain he can learn to love you two. He just has a difficult time with the whole interspecies thing since he comes from a land of only humans. It’s not the norm for them.”

“Yeah… I remember him saying something like that a bit ago. But I’m confident that I can show him that even with our differences, we can still work things out.”

“So could I take that to qualify for Bon Bon as well?”

Lyra flattened her ears, looking down. “I… I’m not sure if I like her like that, Vinyl.”

Vinyl calmly breathed out, standing up. She popped her neck before looking down at Lyra. “You should definitely think this over real hard, Lyra. I’m certain you have feelings for her as well that Bon Bon would gladly know of.”

“I know I have them for Anon, these feelings, but… what if I don’t have these feelings for her?”

Vinyl looked up through the canopies of the trees, staring at the stars twinkling in the sky. “I remember a conversation I had with Bon Bon a while back. She had mentioned she was willing to let Anon be with you, even if it meant she was to be alone as a result. Her love is strong enough to sacrifice her own happiness for you. That’s a pretty powerful thing to do. I just hope that you all can work this out some way.” Vinyl turned away from her, walking toward the tower. “When you’re ready, come back inside and get some food. We still need to get ready for tomorrow to get Anon.”

She left Lyra there, sitting in the dark in thought about everything she had told her.

‘Do I have these kinds of feelings for Bon Bon? Can we really all be together?’

Lyra wasn’t certain of any of this.

“Why can’t things be simple for once?”

She thought long and hard on her feelings, uncertain about what she should do.

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“When are they going to get here?!” Rainbow Dash asked with a frown. “We should’ve been out of here yesterday!”

“Hold yer apples there, partner,” Applejack said from her bench. “We’re all a might bit cranky right now and we don’t need ya’ getting’ all riled up at the moment.”

The others nodded their heads at Applejack before yawning from how tired they all were.

“The princess wanted to make sure we had guards to accompany us on this trip, Dash,” Twilight Sparkle spoke up, trying to calm her hot-headed friend. “She’d have let us go on our own but with all the towns being attacked and the two sides vying for either princess, she wanted a show of force from both guards to help with things. So we’re waiting for the night guards to arrive and then we can head out.”

“And now look how that’s turned out; it’s past midnight! We’re going to get to that stupid place, only winding up having to go out late the next day! And besides, we already have a few guards here with us so why can’t we just go with them?!”

Just as Twilight was about to say something, a group of guards came up to them.

“Finally!” Dash said, flying down to them. “So are we ready to go now?”

“No, Miss Dash,” a guard answered, “we’re still gathering the conductor and the other ponies that run the train.” She groaned hearing that. “It won’t be much longer for us to get this train started up, where we’ll get a hotel before leaving at the earliest chance we can get.”

Dash hung her head, slowly flying over to the top of the train station before flopping on top of the roof. The others slumped back into where they were sitting, clearly not happy hearing that. One of the guards that were waiting at the train station walked up to the new arrivals, giving a brief salute.

“Sir, we have information from Mercanville. It turns out that six ponies from here in Ponyville have not only been through the town, but they’ve already gone into the forest in search of Anon themselves.”

Twilight heard this before walking up to the guard.

“And just who would be stupid enough to go out on their own?” the pony that appeared to be in charge asked.

“It was Lyra and Bon Bon, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked.

The guard nodded in confirmation. “Affirmative, along with four others: ponies named Vinyl, Octavia, Cloud Chaser, and Flitter. They have a large lead on us, but they seem to be headed for the night rebel’s base.”

Twilight frowned. “But our information tells us that it’s the day rebels who have Anon. Could our information be wrong somehow?”

The guard pony didn’t answer her. “The two guards we have located at Mercanville reported this two days ago,” the guard continued. “They happened upon them by complete chance, seeing them walk into the forest and gathered what information they could on what they were planning.”

“Why didn’t they attempt to turn them around?” the one in charge asked.

“The guards only found out about them at the last moment, preoccupied with the missing pony they've been searching for. Doctor Cross Love is the head of research for the area and is also a second objective to return him should we find the individual, as it’s presumed to also have been captured.”

The day guard hummed in thought. “We’re gonna have to collect those six on our way through the forest. I’ll be working out how we’ll go about this. Prepare the guards to be ready at a moment’s notice, we should be out soon enough.”

“Aren’t we missing somepony?” The two guards turned to Twilight. “I thought that Princess Celestia was going to bring somepony to help us with this. She told me that anyways. N-Not that the guard can’t help or anything, but I thought my brother was coming here too…”

“Your brother is greatly needed at the Crystal Kingdom right now. The princess… sent somebody else to help us.”

“Where is the other pony at then?”

The guards seemed to cringe, looking behind her. “The being here is currently talking to Fluttershy right now,” the one in charge said before turning around and going back to his group.

Turning around, Twilight looked at her friend. Her eyes widened, staring at someone she wasn’t expecting to see.

“W-What are you doing here?!” she shouted, stirring the others from their sleep.

“Why Twilight, is that how you greet someone trying to help you little ponies out? You’d think the princess would have taught you some manners along with learning about friendship!”

Discord gave Twilight a large smile, twisting his body in the air around Fluttershy.

“H-He’s here to help us get Anon back,” Fluttershy said, floating in the middle of the chimera.

“Not that your help isn’t appreciated,” Rarity started, looking the being up and down, “but I thought the princess ordered you to stay at the castle grounds after having released you.”

“Why I volunteered to help!” he said with arms wide open. “What better way to show you’re now a part of the goody-two-shoes brigade than to partake on an epic rescue!”

“So there’s no other reason you’re out here?” Twilight asked with a frown.

Discord rolled his eyes, hard, swirling them around in his head and returning his stare at Twilight.

“Okay, so sue me if I was a smidgen curious about meeting this alien that everybody’s talking about. But regardless of that, I’m here to help you, girls! Surely you could use the help of this magnificent being?”

“Could you teleport us to Mercanville?” Dash asked from the roof. “Like, right now?”

“Certainly!” Discord answered with a smile. “With just a snap of my digits a—”

“Don’t even think about it!” Twilight shouted. “You know your magic always pulses out chaos whenever it’s used. I’d rather not have you accidentally doing something after we reformed you!”

He blew out a raspberry, his tongue whistling in the air as he crossed his arms. “Spoilsport…”

Fluttershy floated up to him, patting his shoulder. “Don’t you worry, I’m certain you can use your magic on those naughty rebel ponies.”

“I suppose so,” Discord said. “Maybe I could increase their gravity, making them squatting on the ground as they’re trying to attack us. That’d be fun to see visually.”

“Oh! What if you made them breathe out bubbles? Their battle cries would be so cute!”

Discord laughed at the idea. “That sounds marvelous! That will be a good start before I turn their base into an ice rink!”

“And give them little bunny slippers instead of ice skates?” Fluttershy said with a giggle.

Discord gave a hearty laugh at the image before grabbing Fluttershy and ruffling her mane, producing a squeak from her. “See, this is some good ol’ fun that I’m used to!”

“And just how is this goin’ to help us fight those rebels?” Applejack asked.

Discord and Fluttershy looked at one another before turning to Applejack, shrugging at her. Applejack started to argue with Discord, telling him not to corrupt Fluttershy, who Discord was arguing back she was like that all along. Fluttershy was completely ignored in this conversation.

Sighing, Twilight took a seat by Pinkie Pie who was sleeping on her back, twitching a hoof at something.

“I hope they hurry up and get those train ponies so we can leave soon…”

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‘I am such a horrible, terrible pony.’

After Vinyl had gone inside the tower, Lyra -sat outside for some time, stewing in her thoughts about the whole situation. It took little time for her to realize she had fouled up, once again, only in a manner that may not be salvageable this time around. Eventually, she made her slow trek to the tower, her need for food forcing her inside.

Once inside, the others had looked away from her, uncertain of what to say, an awkward tension having been built between them. Lyra interpreted their actions as them acting disgusted by her own actions; she kept her head down the entire time in shame. Eating quickly, she soon found herself in a corner of the place with her stuff, still thinking about everything. None of them spoke to her, not sure what they could say at all.

Her thoughts could not stop drifting back to her friend. It was a lot to take, finding out her childhood friend, somepony who had stuck with her all her life, was in love with her the entire time. Past events with her friend seemed to flutter by in her mind: the times they went to the theatre, their schooldays and the classes they had, or just enjoying their time with one another on some mindless thing.

Bonnie was always there for her when things were crummy or she needed a helping hoof. She had always wondered how her friend would go so above and beyond what anyone else would do for her.

With each memory that surfaced, she always went back to a single question that stood out in her head: Did she have feelings, Bon Bon, as she does for her?

‘Do I actually love Bon Bon? Can I?’

She was doubtful many other beings out there could put up with some of the things she’s done in the past and still be with her like Bon Bon had. Just thinking about that made her feel horrible once more, thinking about her friend. Lyra cursed herself, wondering why she hadn’t tried to do better and listen to her.

‘Let’s face it Lyra,’ a familiar voice spoke, ‘you’re thickheaded, stupid, don’t think things through, and always manage to find yourself in trouble. Even with all of that, she stuck around for you, to be with you. Would anypony else put up with you as she has?’

Hearing that, it only made her want to redo what had previously happened. It still hurt to remember how she reacted to her words, and it was probably an iota of what Bonnie had felt.

‘She hadn’t deserved how you acted like such a buffoon to her. You really need to focus on this while you’re going out for Anon and make a decision before you get to him.’

In the morning, the six of them quickly packed up to leave with a dour mood. Bon Bon hadn’t spoken a single word to anyone, simply eating as fast as she could before going outside to collect her traps and waiting for the rest of them.

As soon as everything was ready, they all left for the next post with Octavia now in the front leading them. Lyra decided she should stick behind to continue thinking about things, uncertain she would be effective at leading them anywhere properly.

‘Bon Bon wanted us all three to be together. Could the three of us make this work out? Would Anon agree to it? And even if he didn’t, would I stick with her?’

Anon’s customs from his world, from what she had gathered, revolved around monogamy, so it would be even more awkward for a relationship on top of the whole interspecies thing. But… even if he did agree, Lyra didn’t want to leave Bonnie alone either, now that she knew her true feelings.

‘So maybe you should try to be with her then. You already have feelings for her, you just weren’t focused on it being romantic at the time.’

‘But is it something I really should do or would want? I’ve never considered that kind of relationship with her. And what if it doesn’t work out? I don’t want to lose her as a friend!’

‘Lyra, I think you’re already doing a swell job of messing up your friendship as it is. You might be able to repair it, with a lot of hard work, but I think you already know what you’re really feeling about all this.’

“L…”

All this thinking was hurting her head, only making her more confused about the situation. As cruel as it sounded, this wasn’t all about Bon Bon; it was also how she had felt. Is it something she was truly okay with?

“Hey… Lyra…”

‘It should be fine. Bon Bon was cool with giving it a shot, and she already likes you, so why not give it a go? Come on, you already find her attractive, can’t hide that kind of thing from me.’

A blush could be felt burning on Lyra’s face. Lyra shook her head, wanting nothing more but to sit down and think about this.

“Yo’ Lyra, you there?!”

She jumped, hearing Vinyl’s voice right in her ear, trying to get Lyra’s attention. Looking around, she only just noticed the others were nowhere in sight.

“S-Sorry, had my mind on some things…”

Vinyl frowned; likely guessing what was on her friend’s mind. “Cloud Chaser saw the guard post up above the treetops so it’s just up ahead.”

‘Did time really go that fast?’

She hadn’t been paying much attention to anything at all, lost in her thoughts.

“They went on ahead to check the tower out to make sure there were no guards there.”

“Oh, that’s, that’s good.”

“Lyra, I know you’ve got a lot on your mind, but don’t let it drift too much. We don’t need you being sidetracked with your head in the clouds as we’re traveling through this forest.”

“I… Yes, you’re right.”

“And, regardless of what I just said, well… Did you come to a decision concerning Bon Bon?”

“I’m still not sure. This is all happening so fast! Why couldn’t Bonnie tell me all this before we went out to get Anon?”

“I had been telling her to talk to you for a long time, so it’s partially her fault things came out like this. Still, she wants to be with you, even if you made a righteous idiot of yourself last night. So is being with her something you can consider?”

She hung her head down, “I’ve been thinking really hard on this. I mean, I… I don’t think I wouldn’t mind trying this out. I do like her, and it’d take some getting used to. I think it needs some time so I can develop those same feelings she has for me.”

“I completely get what you’re trying to say,” she softly spoke.

“I’ve known her for so long, and I really do enjoy her company a great deal. I just… I… I think I could try being with her.”

Vinyl smiled hearing that. “It’s not like it would be all that difficult; you already live with her and share the bills. So that’s one step out of the way.”

“Yeah, sure. But… what about Anon?”

“What about him? The three of you could still be together if either of you decided that and he’s down with it. But even if it didn’t work out, at least you’d still have Bon Bon there. I’d start with getting the two of you trying things out and then convince Anon later on.”

“S-So you think it’s possible, being in a relationship with those two?”

“I doubt you have to do much work concerning Bon Bon on that idea. But seriously girl, you need to go talk to her as soon as you can. Like right now would even be good.”

Lyra frowned, her ears flattened on her head. “J-Just what am I supposed to say? Last night was such a mess, I doubt she even wants to talk to me.”

“Just apologize for your stupidity and talk to her about trying things out.”

“W-What should I say? How do I say it?! WHAT DO I DO VINYL?!”

Vinyl shrugged her shoulders, “I dunno, go with what feels natural.”

Lyra felt her face tightening as she clenched her teeth. “But what feels natural me is normally the stupid thing to do!”

“And that’s what Bon Bon loves about you, your stupidity.” Lyra blinked at her. “Wait, that’s not what I meant. I mean, she likes your ‘do what I want, when I want’ attitude, heading into things full speed and going with your instinct. Doing it anyway else wouldn’t feel like you gave it your all for her.”

“Why would she like that about me?”

Vinyl once more shrugged her shoulders, “Beats me, I’m not the one in love with you. Though she always did like taking on dangerous challenges. What’s more challenging than you?”

Nervously shuffling at the ground, Lyra looked toward where the others went. “So, I just talk to her about this.”

“Precisely!”

“Go with what feels right. Apologize to her and try to make things better… Okay, I can do this... I hope.”

Walking to the tower, she started to think of ways to talk to Bon Bon. She really didn’t want to buck this up and act stupid as she had previously.

Making her way into the clearing, Lyra could see Octavia close by, messing with her cello. The two pegasus ponies were flying around for whatever reason. Bon Bon… she was over by herself beside the tower.

When she spotted Lyra coming into the clearing, she turned from her and went behind the tower. Lyra could only flatten her ears, obvious that she wanted to avoid her. Vinyl bumped into her, motioning for her to walk toward Bon Bon. Reluctantly, she slowly made her way there.

Walking around the tower, she easily spotted Bon Bon with her back away from her, staring at the ground.

‘Okay Lyra, make up with Bonnie so she won’t be sad anymore. Apologize, talk to her, and maybe give her a hug?’

‘Yes, hugs are always a good thing. She should be better after that right?’

Slowly making her way there, she noticed the flattened ears on her friend immediately twitched upright; she knew somepony was there with her now.

“…Hey, Bon Bon,” Lyra said, standing behind her. She didn’t answer back. “Um… I, I want to talk about what happened last night.”

“W-What else is there to talk about?” she asked in a quiet voice, wiping her face before sniffling. “You already told me everything I n-needed to hear.” Bon Bon stood up, wiping her face once more.

“Wait, Bonnie!” Lyra spoke out as she started to walk off. “I really need to talk to you about it, it’s serious!”

Stopping in her tracks, she stood still for a few seconds before sighing, turning her head to Lyra. “What is it?”

Lyra ran up, eager to patch things up with her. Bon Bon turned around toward her, staring directly at her face. She didn’t look very happy; Lyra was hoping to change that.

“I’ve been thinking throughout the night about what happened and I… I’m really sorry. I should have listened more clearly to you and instead, I acted stupid, like usual.” She paused, noticing that while Bon Bon still seemed upset, she was at least listening. “I didn’t realize what you were trying to say until after you left, and I feel like a complete jerk not listening to you as I should’ve. So I did a lot of thinking about you and Anon and, well…” Lyra rubbed the back of her head. “This feels strange saying to you. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m okay with trying to be with you too.”

“What?”

That got her attention. She looked very surprised with wide eyes. Looking down, Lyra pawed at the ground with her hoof, thinking of what best to say.

“S-So I was thinking maybe we could try it out. I don’t know how it’ll work but I, well—”

Lyra took in a gulp of air, trying to calm herself down.

‘This is really hard to talk about.’

“I just don’t want to see you upset anymore, Bonnie. Seeing you cry like that, I felt like a complete jerk after what happened. I still feel really bad for not thinking straight last night and I… I just want to make it up to you in some way. S-So I thought maybe I could try doing this with you as a way to do that? So maybe… we can…”

Looking up at her, she noticed that Bon Bon had tears in her eyes, but they were not tears of joy. Oh no, she looked extremely angry then.

‘What did I do this time?!’

“I… I do NOT want you to do this because you feel sorry for me, or because you feel bad about last night!” she screamed out, clearly not pleased with what Lyra had said. “I, I wanted us all to be together, but doing it out of pity for me?!”

Bon Bon tried to say more but was unable to find words to do so. Before Lyra could reply back to her, Bon Bon had run off toward the others, leaving Lyra feeling even crummier than she was before. Dropping to the ground, she slammed her head into the dirt and hit it with her front hooves repeatedly.

“Why,” left hoof, “can’t,” right hoof, “I,” another left, “do,” back to the right, “anything, “ before left comes back around, “RIGHT!”

With her head nice and sore, she continued to lay there, upset that she had done something stupid once more, even if she didn’t understand it very well.

‘I really should try some of those speech classes with Iron Will when I get back to Ponyville.’

Curious as to what had happened, Vinyl popped up from behind the tower, walking up to Lyra. “Soooo… how’d it go?”

Lyra simply let out a pathetic whine in response.

“That bad, eh?”

‘Why do I keep messing these things up?!’

‘You could always try again at the next tower,’ her inner voice spoke.

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“I am not going to use that bucket again.”

“But you used it yesterday!”

“I need to take a crap this time around! And no, once more, my poop is not acidic.”

The other day, the two guard ponies thought for some odd reason his pee acted like acid, forcing him to use a bucket they gave him. Of course, if it really was acidic, using a bucket wasn’t going to do much at all, but these ponies weren’t very smart.

“Look, I just want to use the bathroom so I can take a proper dump. No funny business, okay?”

“I don’t know if I can trust the alien with our bathrooms,” Roller said, looking at the bucket beside him. “I mean sure I suppose we can trust him enough, but he’s an alien so he takes strange, alien poops… right?”

“I poop like a minotaur, alright?” Anon told them.

“I heard that minotaurs like to take a pose and then squat when they poop,” Rocky said, eyeing Anon carefully now. “I don’t think our stalls are large enough for you to do that.”

“Don’t minotaurs also poop out large pellets?” Roller asked. “I don’t want to clean up the mess if he misses the toilet.”

“Okay, never mind! I poop like you ponies do!”

Roller stared at him for a few seconds. “…I like to sing when I poop.”

‘Why am I arguing with these two buffoons?!’

Anon thunked his head against the bars, doing his best to hold his bowels.

“That’s not a very good pose, Mr. Anon,” Rocky said, rubbing his chin. “I’d give it a two out of ten.”

Roller squealed, quickly opening the door to the cell before throwing the bucket at Anon’s side, hitting him before he locked the cell once more.

“Poop in that, not in your clothing!”

Turning to the bucket, Anon let out a scream before kicking it. The thing bounced across the floor, now with a large dent in it.

“Now how are you going to poop in that?” Rocky asked.

Before Anon could turn to yell at them, a loud noise was heard, followed by another guard entering the room.

“You two are to take the alien to the interrogation room at once.”

The guard immediately left the two now staring at one another.

“I don’t recall seeing that guard around here all that much, Roller.”

“Same here; it’s as if he only came here to move us along...”

“…Of course, that’s the case, we have to move along to the interrogation room now!”

“Not until you two knuckleheads take me to a bathroom!” Rocky went to say something before he was interrupted, “Don’t you DARE try and bring me another bucket!”

They quickly moved things along, tying Anon’s hands before moving him out of the cell. Of course, Anon refused to do anything until he was taken to a proper restroom. He also made sure to take his time as well.

When he finally arrived, Anon could see the second in command sitting there with an annoyed expression. “And why did it take so long for you two to bring him here?”

“He needed to use the bathroom,” Roller answered.

“And we had to make sure he didn’t break anything while pooping!” Rocky added with a salute.

Colibri gave Anon a questioning look, which he simply sighed at tiredly. Shaking his head, he motioned for the human to sit down on the bale of hay. The two guards immediately left to stand outside the room.

The pony didn’t say anything at first, content with staring at Anon. While the little guy didn’t really unnerve Anon in the slightest like he was probably hoping for, he couldn’t help but wonder why he was there.

“So what do you need to talk to me about now?”

He stared at Anon for a few more seconds before speaking, “Liberum brought up some interesting things about what you had said to him yesterday, and what he heard from the guards stationed at your cell.”

‘Aaah, great, here it comes,’ he thought, already feeling the oncoming headache that was inbound for his cranium.

“You see, it was an interesting discussion that was brought up about what you had said. They seemed fairly convinced that this is a bad idea, that what we are doing should be reconsidered. I am curious as to why you came to these conclusions.”

Anon was having difficulty caring about things at the moment as he placed an elbow on the table, laying his head on his knuckles.

“Seemed to make sense to me from what I can come up with. I don’t see it working out at all in the long run. Your guards don’t really seem to grasp what’s really going on, and Liberum seems to only be doing this because, from what I could tell, you decided to do it. This all seems to be a bunch of nonsense that a child would think could make drama for their poorly written stories.”

Colibri didn’t seem offended by what Anon said, merely leaning forward. “I can see that you need to be educated in some things.”

‘And that can only mean one thing: A bunch of stupid drivel is about to be explained. Great…’

“Far, far back in Equestria’s history, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both ruled these lands. During their rule, there were many things that troubled them and the beings who occupied their lands: the tyrant god Discord, the mad king Sombra, and the great goat-lord Grogar, to but name a few.

“Many incidents would occur that seemed to provoke the lands, species would all but disappear, and bordering lands were poking at their sides for any weaknesses. It was a lot for the princesses to handle. Slowly, over time, they started to take control of the lands and made them a grand place to live, which you can see the results of to this day. Peace and harmony grew throughout the lands, and it was a prosperous age for all.”

Sighing to himself, Anon attempted to get more comfortable, realizing this was going to take a while.

“Of course, not all was as it appeared. Princess Celestia, after her many conquests, wanted to control everything she could around her. It, of course, started with her sister; she wanted nopony to speak out against her in her rule and to do that, Princess Luna was needed to be dealt with. Princess Luna caught wind of this and tried to take control herself, finding no other alternative for her own well-being.”

Colibri looked extremely confident in what he was saying with a small smile on his face. Anon blandly stared back as he leaned against the table.

“Sadly, she was not as powerful as her sister and needed more power; Nightmare Moon offered it to her, hoping to help her in her time of need. But even with the extra firepower behind her, Celestia managed to eke out a win before banishing the princess to the moon, leaving her to rule the lands all to herself.”

“Okay, hold up a second,” Anon said while raising a hand instinctively, trying to say something.

“Please, let me finish,” Colibri politely said. “You wanted answers, so let me speak.”

Passively waving at him, Anon kept his mouth shut, allowing him to continue.

“As I was saying, Princess Luna was banished to her moon for over a thousand years. It left Princess Celestia to rule her lands as she saw fit. Of course, her hunger for power didn’t end there. She wanted more, and decided to either take it from others or remove them from the equation entirely.”

“First, it was the sea ponies. No one has heard of them ever since that hurricane that started up those vortex’s that deny anypony close to the seas they once inhabited. Then there were the deserts and those desert storms which run to this day, a force that managed to split off the beings of those lands from the rest of the world. Only the most daring minotaurs still roam those lands, speaking of wild outlaws and clan laws. Who knows what’s happened to them or if they’re even around still.”

Colibri continued to tell a very imaginative tale of how Princess Celestia took down species after species, making her the most powerful ruler in all the lands as a result. The only ones to contest that power were the griffons and minotaur clans, though Colibri didn’t give a reason as to why that was. The pony even gave a reason why Princess Luna was back; the spell could only last for so long and Celestia had already made plans for her to return to the moon after an unfortunate incident in the near future.

It was an interesting tale to listen to, and it was funnier to realize this pony believed it all without ever questioning it. Just who fed him all this nonsense? Sure, Anon didn’t know the full history of this world, but Lyra told him enough to realize what he was saying was so far fetched it was a wonder Colibri unquestioningly went with it all.

“So as you’ve no doubt realized by now, Princess Celestia’s been slowly taking rule of the world in her quest for power. Princess Luna was too much for her to deal with, so she needed to be rid of. That is why we want her back; she would make for a better ruler than Princess Celestia.”

Anon stared at Colibri with a blank expression as he continued to smile, quite confident in his stance.

“While it’s interesting to have heard all of that from you, I find it hard to believe you.”

“Oh?” he said, staring at him. “What exactly do you think is wrong with what I just said?”

“I know only a little of your history, but what I have been taught doesn’t side with what you mentioned. On top of which, you claim all this without anything to back it up. I am reluctant to believe your side of things without any proof.”

‘That and he sounded like a righteous nutter.’

“If I had any proper proof, I would have presented it to everypony already all over. Sadly, any proof that I could provide you has been covered up by Princess Celestia.”

“How convenient,” Anon said, earning him a frown from Colibri. “So, how exactly did you come by this info then?”

“Our commander has been able to find info relating to exactly what Princess Celestia has done in the past.”

“Is there any chance of seeing this info?”

“He has taken the liberty of making sure they’re kept safe and away from prying eyes. Commander has them in a safe place away from others.”

Anon closed his eyes in thought, rubbing his forehead.

“So this commander has all the proof locked up from others being able to see it.” Colibri nodded. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to show other ponies the truth than keeping it quiet? Surely even you can reason to that much. Spread the truth as far and wide as you can, share it with other nations, and force Celestia to a confrontation. Hiding it brings heavy doubts to your validity. Have you ever seen this proof of his?”

“No, I have not seen it. But I have no reason to believe he’s not telling the truth if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“This guy tells you all of this and doesn’t provide any proof of it being true. All you have to go on is his word. Why would you think he’s not lying to you?”

Colibri gave a smirk as if what he was about to say was the exact thing to turn all of this around on Anon.

“It’s because the commander is my own brother, and family doesn’t lie to one another.”

Anon was dumbfounded, simply and utterly dumbfounded. He gave the guy the best ‘are you shitting me?’ face that he could. He knew the ponies were very emotional and attached to one another when they have a relationship of any kind, some even opting into a relationship with but a hug on the spot, but to just believe someone willy-nilly like that?

“You’re joking, right? You’ve never once questioned his word because he’s family? So now I’m to assume he also has a plan to fix all the problems that come with not having a sun? Or anything else I’ve mentioned from Liberum?”

“None of that is either my brother or my own problem; as he had explained, Princess Luna wanted this to be and we’re confident she had a plan in place that would allow it to work.”

Anon wanted to slap whoever this commander was, hard.

‘He really couldn’t be this stupid. Why didn’t anyone question him at all on this? Oh, that’s right; the rebel group followed along blindly while the second in command, who just so happened to be the brother of the commander, and reassured them all to continue on because of his family devotion.’

There was just no way for all of this to be true, that someone was truly this stupid. Anon knew that the ponies were gullible, and the situations he found himself in were almost Saturday morning cartoon levels of craziness, but this is just something else!

Anon blinked. A thought passed him by, a small blip in his mind, but it quickly flourished as he just realized realizing something.

It dawned on him just how much everything did resemble a cartoon. The extra colorful world, the magical galore that was the world, even lessons on friendship. Even everyone’s actions would make sense if he visualized it as if someone was writing a script to entertain others. He had watched cartoons all his life, and to only come to the conclusion that he did felt quite silly, yet profound.

Were the ponies and all the residents of the world simply programmed to such a degree? Would magic do such a thing to them? Everything made more sense to him if he considered that as a truth. The world around him was all just one big, live-in cartoon that he had somehow gotten himself inserted into! He would be amused more with this hilarious revelation if he wasn’t stuck in the villain’s hideout.

‘Oh! This was a villain hideout! And all I have to do is think about how a cartoon writer would script it all out and I’ve got it. By golly, I’ve got it!’

Anon couldn’t stop chuckling, thinking about it all. He would later look back on this and realize how he came to these conclusions only from snapping at the pony’s mention of family, but that wouldn’t be for a good while into the future.

“This… this… I have finally figured it out!”

“Oh?” Colibri was feeling slightly disturbed at the alien sitting across from him. “From how you’ve been laughing, it must be something quite humorous. What exactly was there to figure out in the first place?”

“Why all of this is happening! It’s the one thing that makes sense in a place that makes no sense whatsoever! You see, you’re brothers the villain of the story! And, now hear me out on this it’s a bit of a doozy, your villainous brother has got you all completely duped into thinking everything you’ve been doing is to help ‘rescue’ the lands and return them to proper order!”

Colibri frowned, deeply. “You better start making sense right now because all you are accomplishing is making me angry.”

Anon pointed a finger at him like a gun with a smirk on his face. “You don’t see it, and no one else in this world does, but now that I’ve opened my eyes, I finally see things as they are. This whole world runs on cartoon logic.”

“…Cartoon logic? I don’t know what cartoons are.”

“They’re these magical creations made by hardworking, yet at times underpaid and underpraised, animators that work tiredly on their paper drawings to make the illusion of movement.”

It only took him a moment to narrow his eyes, a sneer directed at him. “Those silly flipbooks? That is why you claim my brother to be a villain?”

He shrugged at him, “Eh, that’s a pretty close description of how they’re made. But that’s not the point I’m getting at. Everything in this world seems to run on cartoon logic. It’s almost maddening for me to live through all of this, a normal person dumped into a place full of things such as the magic and strange physic breaking events, to how every single one of you acts, all the way down to your brother’s evil schemes.”

“You’re not making sense to me alien,” he spat out, “get to the point!”

“I doubt much of this will since you don’t know cartoons from my perspective,” Anon said, leaning forward. “Regardless, I’m going to take a shot at figuring out the plot of this motion picture we’re living. The script calls for your brother, the villain, to push his unwitting little brother that follows his every word to do all his bidding for him. To have the person that seems like a good chap to do their evil bidding. I’ve seen this used in other films; a tad overused, I’ll admit, but why mess with a formula that works?”

‘Oooh, he did NOT like hearing that,’ Anon thought, seeing his face was starting to redden with anger.

“Your brother doesn’t show any proof that would show he’s right, he leads a group of rebels to fight for control of the land that’s already peaceful, and from what I’ve already heard, he’s throwing your group out to sow as much chaos as possible in Equestria. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re currently in the final act and he’s collecting the last pieces needed so he can attempt to rule the lands for himself.” Anon nodded to himself, his arms crossed. “Yeah, face it: the guy’s evil.”

“He is NOT evil! It’s Princess Celestia that is the evil one! My brother would not lie to me! What proof do you have that my brother is in the wrong?!”

“And right back at you, what proof does he have to prove he’s right? He’s using Princess Celestia as a scapegoat for everything he’s doing right under your snouts! I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s lying about trying to bring Nightmare Moon back as well. I do wonder if Princess Luna is even remotely important to these plans of his or if it’s just some imagine goal to keep you all in the dark, something for you all to work toward.”

“GUARDS!” Anon barked out a laugh, watching him scream like that. The two very annoying guards from before came in and awaited their orders from the very unsettled Colibri. “Take this alien back to his cell this instant!”

Roller walked over to him and made sure his hands were tied properly. Standing up, he sighed, letting out a small chuckle as he was escorted out the door. He immediately stopped at the entrance of the door, turning his head to Colibri.

“I doubt you really believe much of what I just said, what with you being so sure of your brother’s innocence. But I’m almost one hundred percent certain that if you go into his room and do a search around, you’ll find his plans for whatever he’s been doing and probably even a journal completely painting him up to be the villain you don’t want to see him as. At least, that’s how cartoons work anyways; every stupid villain like your brother always keeps their plans locked away in a place that could so easily be found with some thought.” Anon shook his head, letting out a snort of amusement. “Seriously, how stupid can they all be?”

The guards started pushing him out the door and away from the screaming pony that was left in the room. They walked him very quickly back to his cell after hearing all the yelling coming from Colibri. Placing him back inside the familiar cell, they took the bindings off of him through the bars like before. Anon rubbed his wrists as the two guards let out heavy sighs.

“I’ve never seen him scream like that!” Rocky said with a surprised expression.

“Same here! I don’t know what you said to him, Mr. Alien, but he definitely did not like it!”

“He just didn’t want to accept anything I had to say,” he told them as he proceeded to lie down on his sparse bedding's.

The two proceeded to talk quietly to themselves about what had just happened. Anon simply ignored them, thankful for the peace and quiet he had at the moment.

‘It’s all one big cartoon world. Certainly a strange twist, but after being here for so long it’s not like I can’t handle it.’ Everything from Lyra’s silly actions to the townsfolk’s reactions to him just made this idea more fitting to him. ‘So long as I keep my eyes peeled I should be able to see signs of things coming and react accordingly to them.’

As Anon thought back on the previous conversation, something had slowly occurred to him: how exactly was he to get out of there? He could try and wait for the eventual rescue mission that he was almost certain was coming for him, if what Colibri said about his importance was anything to go by. And then there was the likely attempt being made by Lyra and Bon Bon. In the end, it might be a safer bet to get himself out of this place than to wait, who knew what would happen if he were to wait.

He would need more info about his surroundings from the guards, and he’d like to get some moderate supplies if at all possible before leaving. Thankfully for him, he had two ponies conveniently close by that would be of help to him.

“Hey there,” Anon called out, “so what exactly can you tell me about this base of yours?”

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

‘Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…’

Lyra continued to repeat these words over and over in her head. She had only wanted to talk to Bon Bon and see about fixing things and all she had accomplished was to make her even more upset. She had been thinking for the past few hours on ways to patch things up, but finding the task difficult.

It was already starting to get dark. The next post they came up to would both be the last one they’d travel to for the day and the last one until they reached their base. Lyra was trailing the group as before, and now Bon Bon was taking the lead, being the furthest away from her as possible.

It did give her time to talk to Vinyl on some advice. Act normally like she does, yet don’t act stupid; those two things are contradictory to one another when applied to Lyra.

The only thing that had been going her way so far as they had not met a single rebel or menacing creature out in the forest. There were a few creatures that roamed the place they saw here and there, though they all disregarded them. Lyra had been expecting something to occur similar to the pink manticore from before but was grateful that she was wrong on that end. It was almost eerie how things had gone for them since meeting the manticore in fact.

“Girls, the final post is up ahead,” Bon Bon said in a monotonous tone of voice, looking past a bush up ahead.

Moving forward, Bon Bon watched ahead to try and spot any movement like they had been doing when coming across a tower. There wasn’t much room this time around for the others so they stuck behind her a good way away, waiting for her to give the okay.

After approximately ten minutes, Bon Bon motioned for Cloud Chaser to fly up and go through the top. Only a few seconds later does she burst through the front door with a frightened yelp. The group feared for the worst until noticing a whole nest of mice running out of the door, scattering into the woods.

“Well, that’s settled,” Octavia said, walking toward the tower. “I highly doubt any sane being would be in a tower full of mice.”

“Fluttershy would,” Flitter said, stopping Octavia in her tracks.

“I don’t really regard her as fully sane with what we know of her,” Octavia mentioned, getting a nod from everyone. “Besides, the likelihood of meeting someone like her is slim to none.”

With that being said, the others slowly made their way to the tower after Octavia, getting ready to stay the night there. It didn’t take very long for them to spruce up the place a bit and move things around for a more comfortable night there.

“So why are we staying here for the night?” Cloud Chaser asked, putting some wood down beside the fire pit. “We still have some good daylight and could make it to the base early.”

“While true, by the time we do get to the base, it would be nighttime,” Lyra answered. “I don’t think us fighting against the night rebels in the night would be a very sound idea.”

“They’d have a serious advantage during that time, likely active during the night” Octavia continued. “On top of that, we wouldn’t be able to scope out the place at all during the night, and even if we managed to get to Anon, bringing him back through the night in the forest is very dangerous.”

Cloud Chaser crossed her front legs, grumbling about wanting to go anyways. The others let out their own sighs as they worked on getting things prepared.

“So we’re nearly done with this all,” Octavia spoke. “I do hope everything turns out fine when we grab him. I’m quite beat from being out in this forest.”

Vinyl lightly punched her in the shoulder, “Ah don’t be such a whiny mare, we’ve been through many stressful moments in the past.”

“Those other times didn’t involve rescue missions, Vinyl.”

“Actually, three was that time where your violin and cello were stolen. You and I went out to rescue those, remember?”

“Please, don’t remind me. Those jerks wound up using them for pieces in their ‘art’.”

“And they got what was coming to them in the end!”

The two continued to talk back and forth about their tale of the music bandits as the others listened in fascination. Lyra, on the other hoof, was still trying to come up with some way to not fudge up her talks with Bon Bon. She felt confident enough to not muck things this time around, but there was a small problem: how exactly to get Bon Bon and her alone to talk.

She was likely to decline if she tried to go up to her again, so that left with tricking her to go outside somehow and having Lyra out there as well. Thankfully for her, it didn’t take long to figure out how to do this.

‘Yes, it’s a foolproof plan,’ Lyra thought to herself, walking over to Vinyl.  ‘I’ll just get Vinyl to do it! Surely she wouldn’t expect anything so sneaky!’

As the tale of musical grandeur came to a close, Lyra found an opportune time to slide up to Vinyl. Getting close to the now alerted mare, Lyra whispered into Vinyl’s ear about trying to find some way to get her outside and alone before she snuck up to the top of the tower without the others noticing.

Walking over to a window in the tower, Lyra peered outside of it. Right below the window was a nice, large bush. Lyra thought it was perfectly placed as she climbed outside onto the ledge.

Without any thoughts about the consequences of her actions, she jumped off the ledge, aiming herself toward the bush. She picked up speed very fast, immediately regretting her idiotic decision. Kicking her hooves in the air, Lyra was about to let out a scream before she hit the bush. Instead of a scream, she let out a muffled grunt as the wind was knocked out of her.

“Eeeeeeeeehhhhhhhh,” she whined out.

‘Why did you do that you stupid mare?!’ a familiar voice spoke in her head, somehow crying in anguish. Lyra rolled around in pain, slowly making her way out of the bush.

‘Nothing feels broken, but there’s soooo much paaaaain.’

‘Yeah, maybe you should lie here for a bit until you feel better. No wait, you have something that needs to be done. Have fun with that, you moron!’

Lyra ignored her inner voice as she stood up on wobbly legs, leaning against the tower walls for support. After regaining her breath, she slowly made her way around the tower, spotting Bon Bon currently gathering what looked like additional pieces of wood nearby the trees.

‘Vinyl must have gotten her to get some more for the fireplace,’ Lyra thought. ‘Perfect. Hopefully, I don’t screw this up like last time.’

Lyra waited until Bon Bon had her back turned to grab some more wood before she walked up to her. “…Hi, Bon Bon,” Lyra greeted, standing directly behind her.

She let out a squeal, quickly turning around and throwing her bundle of wood at Lyra. All attempts of dodging the projectiles failed as they all hit her in the side, knocking the wind out of her once more.

“Whyyyyyyyyyyy?” Lyra squeaked out, laying on the ground.

Bon Bon was holding her chest in fear before noticing it was Lyra. Calming herself down, she let out a breath before calmly staring at Lyra with indifference.

“What do you want, Lyra?”

“I just wanted to talk to you about before,” Lyra wheezed out.

“Haven’t you already said enough?” Bon Bon said, turning around. She went to her previous task of collecting wood, seemingly finding it more important at the moment. “I don’t know why Flitter dropped all her wood out here instead of picking it up,” Bon Bon said to herself.

“Bonnie, you know I suck at words and doing things. I can be pretty stupid sometimes.” She didn’t answer back, continuing her task of picking up wood. “Okay, okay! Most of the time!

“Look, I’ll just come out and say it: it was really weird to find out you had these feelings for me. I didn’t know how to react at all when I found out! I… I was stupid for being a bad friend last night, and even dumber for not realizing any of this after all this time.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, right?” She stopped by a tree, looking down. “It was stupid of me to think the three of us could work it out anyways.”

“B-But we can! I even tried to say so this afternoon!”

“I don’t want you doing things because you feel bad for me, Lyra!”

“Bonnie…” Slowly, she walked toward where she was. Bon Bon didn’t move from her spot, keeping her head down. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?”

She took a few moments, thinking to herself before answering in a quiet voice, “I didn’t want to know what would happen if you rejected me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“I… I know you don’t remember much of it, but I remember all those times in school when you’d stick up for me or would be by my side whenever I was down. Even though you were picked on all the time, you still took the time to stick up for me or be there when I needed some help. I was never really confident growing up and even nowadays I don’t feel very confident. But you, you were always out there doing what you wanted, regardless of what others thought. You were so spontaneous, and I felt that was kind of… attractive to me. I always looked up to you for everything you did… even if some of your actions were stupid.”

She sat down, looking away from Lyra. The unicorn sat directly behind her, listening to her words.

“But… I still looked up to you, always being there to help me. You gave me confidence in myself whenever I started to doubt about things. You really have no idea how much you mean to me as a friend when I was growing up, helping me with things all the time when I needed it.”

Lyra hadn’t forgotten any of it; it just didn’t feel like something that was important to her, only that it was something that she felt anyone would do for their friends.

“It wasn’t until our first year in the academy that I realized what you meant to me. You weren’t just some childhood friend I grew up with or somepony I could always rely on. You were someone… I wanted to be with, somepony I truly cared for.”

Bon Bon hiccuped, wiping her eyes.

“I t-tried telling plenty of times in the past about this to you, but… I could never get the words out right or I’d always get scared! All my thoughts ever did was doubt the things I would s-say to you, so I always fell flat on my face when I ever did try.

“I… I guess I was too afraid of what would happen if you said no to me.” She sniffled as she wiped her eyes once more. “I was content with just living with you, being around you, but I always wanted more. I wanted to be with you.” She snorted, wiping away her tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. “You probably think this is all really silly to hear.”

“N-No! This is definitely not silly at all; believe me when I say that! I really wish you had told me all of this a long time ago.”

“Why? Would it have made a difference then?”

“…Who’s to say,” Lyra said, looking away. “I don’t know. But I definitely would have given things a chance!” She scooted closer to her, almost touching her with the close proximity they held. Bon Bon kept her head from her. “Bonnie… I care about you. I hate it when you feel sad whenever I do something stupid or because of me.”

“Then stop feeling b-bad about it! I said I don’t want to be with you because you f-felt bad for me!”

“Bonnie, I do feel bad, but how else am I supposed to feel when you just unload all of this from out of nowhere on me!” Bon Bon sobbed, making Lyra feel bad about the situation. “I know I feel bad about this all, but as I said before, I’m at least willing to give it a try. I’m certain if we work on this, the three of us can work something out.”

“N-N-N-No! NO! Y-You’ll just wind up saying no to me w-when we get Anon a-and just be with him!” She stood up, forcing Lyra to stand up as well, backing up. “You’re just lying to me. YOU’RE JUST LYING TO ME! You don’t care about me, y-y-you just, y-you just—” It was clear she was now in hysterics about everything, her mind going to the worst-case scenario, not thinking things would work out for her at all.

“BONNIE!” Lyra yelled, “when have I NEVER cared about you?! We’ve stuck beside one another nearly our entire lives and you just think I’ll dump you without a moment’s thought?! Well, I like you too!”

Bon Bon stood there, trying to say something, incapable of speaking coherently at the moment.

“When I said we can try and make things work, I meant it! I won’t dump you for only Anon, and you better get that! He’s not even here for this! This isn’t about him, got it? It’s about you and me. You went through all this trouble for both of us just to be with me, so I have no problems trying to be with you darn it! And for how much I really care about you, well… well….”

‘COME ON YOU STUPID MARE! THINK OF SOMETHING!’

Lyra was panicking, desperately trying to come up with what she should do right then. Bon Bon looked like she was about to fall apart and she wanted to show her she really meant everything.

‘Go with the flow?’

‘…Sure, go with the flow.’

Walking up to her, Lyra grabbed Bon Bon, holding her tightly. Before she could act on trying to move or get away, Lyra slammed her lips against hers. Bon Bon immediately went rigid, completely surprised by her actions. She held her there for what felt like forever before stepping back.

“There!” Lyra yelled out, trying to catch her breath, “how’s that for spontaneous! And I don’t care how much I have to prove my feelings are strong enough but I will make sure to kiss you every day if I have to!”

Staring at Bon Bon, who stared back with wide eyes, she was shocked at what had just happened. Seconds later she started to shake, looking like she was about to cry once more.

‘Darn it! What did I do now?! I knew I should have hugged her instead. I am such a stupid, moronic, basket cased, nincompooped, imbe—’

She was immediately tackled by Bon Bon, interrupting her thoughts. Lyra let out a squeal of surprise. She tried to let out a holler but found herself unable to due to Bon Bon now squeezing her tight, kissing her back. The two of them tumbled to the ground with her on top of Lyra, not letting go. The kiss only lasted a few seconds before her head squeezed into the crook of Lyra’s neck against her shoulder.

Completely stunned by her actions, Lyra slowly lifted her hooves around her back, returning the hug. Bon Bon let out a muffled sob, squeezing tighter. Having a moment of clarity, Lyra decided to let her friend hold her there, allowing her all the time she needed.

Off to the side, Vinyl sat in a bush, silently watching the scene taking place. She nodded her head, smiling at the two.

“Finally got the girl. Good going, Bonnie. I hope your future works out for the two of－HURK!”

Standing behind Vinyl was Flitter, wearing her tight-fitting outfit, putting her in a sleeper hold. Quickly putting her out, Flitter dragged her away with a ‘nin, nin, nin’, leaving the two lovebirds alone for the night.

~End Chapter Eighteen~




Chapter Nineteen – This Is The Part Where Things Get Hectic



Lyra had finally managed to get out of the room from the second floor of the tower, trying to get up early for the day. It was a struggle for her, prying herself away from Bon Bon’s grip. The girls had decided to let Bon Bon skip her watch due to her being physically and mentally exhausted from the recent events. That and they didn’t think it felt appropriate to have her on the watch.

Bon Bon had easily managed to convince Lyra to sleep with her for the night. That turned to her snuggling up against Lyra as the two talked to one another, mostly about what she wanted to do when they all returned to Ponyville.

The talk was cut short quickly in the night from her falling asleep on Lyra. Awake, she thought about what her future would be like with what had just occurred. It would be an awkward time when they all went back to Ponyville that was for sure.

Shaking her head from the memories of last night, Lyra walked downstairs, seeing Octavia by the fireplace, putting more wood into it. Spotting her coming down the stairs, she hummed to herself as she continued to feed the fire.

“Good morning, Lyra,” she greeted. “I was just getting ready for our meals before we head out.” Nodding, the unicorn took a seat beside Octavia. The two of them stared into the fire in silence, listening to the crackling of the wood. “So, Bon Bon finally came out.”

Lyra sighed, “How many ponies knew about this?” she asked, hanging her head down. “I feel so dumb about how oblivious I was to her feelings.”

Octavia tilted her head at Lyra. “I would personally say there weren’t that many which knew of her feelings, though I highly doubt it will surprise anypony the two of you hooked up.”

The minty pony rubbed her front leg. “Okay then. I’m, well, sorry you four had to see all this drama.”

“I’m just happy that it’s finally over after so long.”

“I just want to get this all done so I can go back home. Take a nice hot bath and relax for a while.”

“I concur with that,” Octavia agreed with a nod.

Hearing someone yawn, they turned and saw Vinyl stretching her legs out, letting out a small squeak in the process. As if on cue, Flitter and Cloud Chaser also wake up at the same time, stretching their limbs out.

“I should get the food started,” Octavia said, getting up from her seat and over to her bags. “I’ll prepare the eggs; you should go get Bon Bon up.”

Grunting in acknowledgment, Lyra stood up and headed up the stairs. Walking into the room, she saw that Bon Bon was already awake, placing things back into her pack.

Turning around, she blinked at Lyra before smiling at her, “Good morning, Lyra.”

“Morning,” she replied, walking up to her friend. “Octavia has breakfast being made downstairs.”

“Alright,” she replied, putting her pack on. “I suppose I should disarm my traps while she’s doing that.” Bon Bon clasped the pack onto her sides, making sure her lab coat was perfectly fine while doing so. As Lyra turned to leave with Bon Bon in front, the candy mare stopped, right before turning back to Lyra. “Oh, um… I’m sorry if I was overly emotional last night. I sort of lost my cool, a—”

“It’s fine, Bonnie,” Lyra interrupted, “you just wanted to get some things off your chest, I understand. We can talk more about this once we get back home, okay?”

“R-Right,” she said in embarrassment. “I-I’ll go now and get those traps.”

Watching her quickly go down the stairs, she sighed out. Things were going to be awkward for quite some time for the two of them, Lyra just felt it. She shook her head, making her way downstairs to get some food and make sure the group was ready to head out as soon as possible.

It didn’t take long for them all to eat, though for some odd reason they had to help get Cloud Chaser out of one of Bon Bon’s traps: she had gone outside to use a bush, unknowingly stepping into one of her traps. Flitter wouldn’t stop teasing her the entire time as she saw her sister entrapped in a net, stating how she needed to believe more in the ‘nin’ in her. It ended with the rest of the group holding Cloud Chaser back from throwing ‘Celestia’s pee’ at her…

Once fed and packed up, the six of them sat around a map placed on the ground, once more examining it.

“We should be there in a few hours following this route,” Lyra said, pointing it out to the others. “Once we do a cursory inspection when we arrive at the base, I’ll be taking Cloud Chaser to the left side of it while Bon Bon and Flitter will be taking the right. We’ll be directly searching for where Anon is being held.”

“Which will leave me and Octavia to throw down some sound waves into their virgin ears, blasting their ‘drums with our combined forces of awesome!” Octavia let out a groan while Vinyl pumped her hoof in the air.

“Right, you two are the distraction at the front while we search the base. We have to hit hard and fast, we don’t know how many are there so we don’t want a long-drawn-out battle. The moment we do find him, either myself or Bon Bon will stay with him as Flitter or Cloud Chaser flies back to the others, alerting them we found him. On the way back we’ll head directly to these towers as resting points, though I’d like to try and travel to the second or third tower beyond this one to give us some distance.”

“It seems simple enough,” Cloud Chaser said, swiping a hoof in the air.

“So long as nothing, in particular, goes wrong,” Bon Bon stated.

“Is everypony packed and ready?” Lyra asked, putting her map away. They all nodded their heads after double-checking their bindings. “Then let’s head out. The sooner this is over, the sooner we head home and celebrate our success!”

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 shuffling of papers could be heard along with a labored breath coming out of the second in command. Sitting in the commander’s room at the commander’s desk, Colibri stared at the papers he found in his brother’s room, displeased at what he had read.

He lost count of how many times he’s gone through the papers, barely believing them to be true. And yet, here they were; everything that his brother had planned out.

It was the captive’s own words that forced him to do this. Colibri never doubted his brother once, never had reason to, and yet, something about what the alien had said kept returning, forcing him to become… too curious, too anxious just to prove to himself that his brother was, in fact, a hero.

So he had searched his room carefully, looking for anything that the human had described. He was truly feeling like a fool nearing the end for even searching the room when happenchance occurred: a painting of him and his brother had fallen as he was cautiously moving things around. Behind it was a set of plans for things that had occurred and was yet to come, along with a journal explaining everything.

‘The alien was right,’ Colibri thought, looking down at the journal of his brother. ‘To find my own brother…’

The door slammed open with Liberum walking in, panting hard. “Sir! We’re currently under attack from an unknown force up above!” Colibri ignored this, simply continuing to stare at the papers. Liberum frowned at this. “Sir? Did you hear me?”

It was only then that Liberum truly realized the state of the room he was in. Everything was torn apart as if some being had ransacked the place. Walking forward, Liberum looked at the papers that Colibri was ignoring him for.

“Sir?”

Sighing, Colibri calmed himself, turning to Liberum,” The alien, he was right.”

“What… what exactly do you mean by that?” Liberum asked. “Please don’t say the alien’s words from yesterday encouraged you to do this?”

“His words… They only helped me want true confirmation about my brother’s actions. For some reason, what he said would not stop bothering me.” Colibri looked down at the papers, and then around the room. “The room was my own doing after finding what I had. He had no part in my actions at that point.”
Liberum stared down at Colibri, uncertain where to go with this conversation. “You found something, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did,” Colibri sharply replied, “otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here, trying to find a reason why he did this. All our sacrifices, the work we’ve put into this… all for nothing.”

A small rumble could be felt in the room, forcing Liberum to look back at the door, and then to Colibri. “So everything we’ve done is all for naught?”

“Indeed,” Colibri muttered, closing his eyes. “Everything that my brother had convinced me of was nothing but a pile of lies. We were used for my brother’s nefarious schemes, planned to be tossed aside when he was through with us.” He laughed, looking at the papers once more. “He’s supposed to give word a few days from now to have us confront the opposing forces in targeted cities so he can slip in while we create chaos. Things would come to an end in a few months from now after this week, his preparations finished. He’s so close to completing them, all he needs is some misdirection from what he’s doing. It doesn’t look like he had a contingency plan if anyone ever found out about this.”

“I simply can’t believe I’m saying this, but it looks like luck was on our side when we foalnapped the alien,” Liberum said with a frown. He placed a hoof on Colibri’s shoulder, “Sir, I can’t say I understand how you’re feeling. It must be horrible to know your brother would do such a thing. But now that you have, we should prepare for the outcome of our actions.”

Colibri chuckled, looking at his friend, “So easy to move away from what we’ve been doing without a thought, Liberum?”

“You know I’m only here because of you, Colibri. If you truly believe we shouldn’t be doing this, I will follow through.”

“And how exactly do you expect I go about this?” Colibri angrily asked. “What should I prepare for? My brother’s already near the Crystal Empire, waiting to give us the command for the distraction he needs to get into some guarded cavern, something about a powerful artifact in there that will help him complete his plans.”

“Do you know what his end goals are?”

“…No. He was stupid enough to write everything he’s been doing, yet never wrote down a reason for it all. Only that it was to help further empower some kind of draconic artifact” He stared at the papers, “I know of your commitment to stay by my side. You’ve stuck beside me for a long time. But what should I do with the others? I doubt they will come along on whatever we’re doing; they’re here due to false preaching. Why help the ones willing to fix it once they find the truth? Many will outright leave and I doubt any are willing to help stop my brother.”

“But sir… Colibri. Everyone here, they respect you. We all look up to your leadership, to your dedication and well being of us all. We may have been duped but I don’t believe the commander should be allowed with getting away with manipulating us, and I doubt the others will want that as well. So some may leave, that’s up to them, but has that ever stopped us in the past? Even if it was just the two of us I would still follow you into the depths of Tartarus. Should we truly give up now, when our actions are in dire need of correction?!”

Colibri sat there in silence, looking down at the papers. The room rumbled once more, neither of them moving from their positions.

“It truly sickens me knowing all our actions amounted to nothing. Even if our intent wasn’t to hurt anypony, we’re still in the wrong. Ultimately, we should give ourselves up and hope for leniency from the princesses. It’s… for the best.”

Grief-stricken to hear this, Liberum stood still as Colibri got up from his chair, packing his brother's journal and papers into his side pack before slowly walking past him.

“But.. before we do that, we have one final mission,” Colibri said, stopping at the door and looking at Liberum in anger. “We’ve got a wayward commander on his own, thinking he can use us like this. I believe he needs to be shown he’s wrong in this thinking, don’t you think?”

Liberum turned to Colibri with a serious look in his eyes, staring at his longtime friend. “What do we do if we’re not able to get to him in time?”

“No, we will get there even if it means we run without sleep for the entire trip. He will not be allowed to do as he pleases any longer. And then, after we finish things up… who knows? But for now, we’ve got my brother to track down.” The room shook, causing the two to look up at the ceiling, watching it crack and leave trails across the surface. “But first… let’s deal with this problem we’re currently facing.”

Liberum gave a nod, trying his best to hide a smile.

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 moment Anon woke up, things started to get hectic for him. It all started with the entire building vibrating from some unknown force, shaking the entire foundation. It unnerved Anon just how strong it was. He could hear a multitude of voices screaming outside the thick wall, along with something in the background that felt very familiar: a droning of some kind that repeated its actions.

It seemed like they were being attacked once again, only this time it was a more aggressive attempt at them.

Climbing up to his feet, his first thought was to look out the barred windows to see what was happening. He stopped himself, remembering what had happened the last time. He wanted no part of the magic that would likely go through and blast right into his face.

The place he was being held in would not stop pounding away with a low thump that shook the building. Dust flew in the air, forcing a choked cough from Anon. It seemed that neither of the guards had arrived at his cell just yet, having been told by Liberum to stand outside the room itself to keep him from talking to the two anymore.

Liberum didn’t seem happy hearing how Anon had made Colibri all worked up. He had made some threats about moving in unicorns to help with any interrogations they would have shortly. Rocky and Roller appeared worried hearing that, and Anon certainly wasn’t having any of that if he could help it. If given the chance, he would certainly try to escape, regardless of what he may find in the forest. Waiting for someone to help him wouldn’t do much good if his mind was turned into a vegetable from their actions.

Thinking about his chances of escaping, he got quite a bit of info from the two guards, enough to give him a fairly decent idea of how to get back to civilization. All he needed was to follow these supposed guard towers. As for any supplies, he would just have to forgo looking for any as it was in his best interest to just get out of there.

As the shaking continued, Anon stood there, waiting for any opportunity to get him out of there. He was hoping for some opening that would allow him a way to get out. Possibly a stray beam of magic could destroy the wall to his cell, or the bars get melted off somehow.

The building shuddered once more, stronger this time around, with Anon nearly dropping as a result. The odd but familiar sounds didn’t appear to be louder, but they did seem more chaotic. It felt like whatever was attacking was upping their game. A bit worrisome if he got in the thick of it, but it kept the night rebels occupied with things.

Standing there for some time, Rocky eventually came within sight of the cells. He looked reluctant being there. Anon could hear the keys on the pony jingling on his side.

“Okay,” Rocky said, looking up to him, “I know we’re supposed to, well, watch you and all. My brother and I had been talking and didn’t think you being here was a good idea.” He turned to the side, looking away. “You see—ECK!”

Anon had quickly gotten to the bars and pulled the pony against them, raising him in the air as he choked him. He felt bad, hurting the dopey guard, but he had the keys to his freedom.

“N-N-No, you n-need to be a l-little lower,” Rocky struggled out.

Unsure how to react to that, Anon did notice he was squeezing at the armor more than Rocky himself. Wiggling his arms in the proper position, he squeezed his neck with better ease.

“M-Much b-b-better.”

Anon gritted his teeth, “Oh god, you’re getting off on this, aren’t you?! I swear to god if you’re getting a pony boner over this…”

“W-what's… a… b-bo… nn…” He didn’t finish, slumping into Anon’s arms, unconscious.

Anon let off the pressure, not wanting to cause any permanent damage to the creepy little pony.

As he was slowly kneeling to put him on the ground Roller just so happened to walk in just at that moment. Both Anon and Roller stared at one another, before the pony looked down at his brother, then back at Anon. A sudden realization hit the pony, “Oh! He must’ve told you before I got here huh? Well, I couldn’t find a spare bucket or anything useful, sooo… How am I going to do this? Hmm… Well, I guess there’s always the wall!”

Getting into a running position, Roller charged the wall to Anon’s right, ramming his head right into it. He immediately bounced back, going into a spinning swirl before slamming into the ground, knocking himself out. Anon could help but stare at what the guard had done, utterly baffled by both of their actions.

Ignoring the idiocy of it all, he turned back to the guard he choked out and unclasped the keys from him. Unlocking his cell door, he got out and made his way down the hall, anxious to get out of dodge. A rather large quake hit the building he was in, forcing him to grab some nearby bars for support.

“Yeah, definitely time to leave,” he said to himself, waiting for the shaking to stop.

Once outside, Anon didn’t notice any of the ponies outside of the room, thanking his lucky stars. Or would he be thanking Luna? What a confusing thought to have at the moment for Anon.

Taking a calming breath, Anon ran down the halls and past all the empty cells until he reached the far door. Looking into each room and not seeing anything, he ran past them, searching every door he came across, trying to go by memory on how to get out of the place. He was glad to not have met any guards around, likely all distracted at the moment.

“WAIT!” he heard being screamed from behind him just as he was about to leave the next room.

Letting out a curse, he immediately went through the door and threw a nearby stand in front of it before running to the next door. Attempting to go through it, he found the door locked; the final one he needed for his freedom.

He was not wanting to get caught after getting so far, not believing there would be another chance to get out by himself. Looking around the room, he noticed he was in an office of sorts. It also happened to have a convenient window, cracked open already.

Acting fast, he ran over to it, slammed it all the way open, and jumped out without thought. He dropped only a few feet from the ground, kneeling as he fell and landed, quite happy to have managed all of that so well. Thinking fast, he sprinted to the trees closest to him in hopes to get as much distance from the place as possible.

Finding the guard towers he was told about could come later; right then, he needed to make sure none of the guards could recapture 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

Bon Bon was not a happy pony.

When the six of them arrived at the base, they all went to their respective positions, waiting for what was about to happen.

Making sure they didn’t get caught, Bon Bon and Flitter started to sneak through the trees and diving into bushes, keeping out of sight as they moved through the area. Finding a good spot to wait, Bon Bon stayed in a bush while Flitter went up into a tree to hide.

Waiting at their spot, it didn’t take long to hear an obnoxiously loud boom, followed by a pattern of additional thumps, zaps, and whatever else the electrifying musical mare could come up with. The rebels quickly reacted to the sounds, running straight toward it. It was a lot fewer than she thought would be at the base. Would they hold some in reserve for some reason? It was a worrying thought, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Keeping to the shadows, she snuck around the trees, making her way up to the buildings, all the while watching for any rebels running past her. Flitter kept to the sky, zipping through the area as she wore her suit, ‘nin’ing’ through the area. Bon Bon was quite surprised to see how competent she was at keeping out of sight.

Stopping at a building, she looked in and couldn’t spot any ponies in the room. Thinking it was as good a place to start as any, she jumped into the window and hoped for the best. Ducking once she landed, she immediately looked around.

There were only a few desks, chairs, and some cabinets along with a map placed on a wall. There didn’t seem to be much in the room at all. Doing a quick search for anything that could help her she hummed, finding nothing of interest.

Walking to the window, Bon Bon signaled to Flitter to see if it was okay to jump back out. It took a minute before she flashed something bright in Bon Bon’s direction, giving her the okay to leave. Once out, she went straight back into the shadows before running off to the next building.

It took a few tries before she eventually spotted two fairly large buildings in the back of the base. Deciding they were a good place to try her luck, she motioned Flitter that she was going in, making sure not to get spotted on her way.

As she was moving forward, the ground shook violently before a particularly loud string of music hit the air. It didn’t sound like something typical of Vinyl, so Octavia must have joined the fray of musical warfare. It was played at a rapid pace; it kept up with the fast beating that was coming from Vinyl.

Returning her direction to the task at hoof, she looked up to Flitter, noticing she had flown into the air and was returning toward Bon Bon. Landing in a tree, she slid down the base before hiding in the bush Bon Bon was currently in.

“It seems like Octavia did that,” Flitter said, confirming her thoughts. “I have no idea what that was, but right now she’s shooting off bow after bow like crazy at the rebels! You should have seen it; her cello was glowing all weird-like and had lightning sparking off of it!”

“Vinyl’s interactions with it, no doubt,” Bon Bon said. “Alright, I’m going to go into that large building right there. I’ll need you to keep an eye out while I’m inside.”

Flitter nodded to her before ‘nin’ing’ off back into the trees. Shaking her head, Bon Bon ran out of the bush and directly toward the building. Getting inside a window, she opened it up and slid in. Ducking down once more, she looked around for any signs of danger. Finding herself safe enough, she stood back up before looking for any clues to Anon’s whereabouts.

It didn’t take her long to find some information on him on a desk. It had a picture of him pinned to some papers, along with some directions to where he could be found. She was quite happy to find she didn’t need to do something crazy to get to him. Stepping out of the room to go check on the location she read about, Bon Bon immediately noticed sounds coming directly in a room next to hers.

Worried it was a pony, she took one of her ropes out, ready to deal with the rebel before it could sneak up on her. Peeking out the door, she wasn’t expecting to see Anon walking out of the room.

“WAIT!” she screamed out, trying to get her rope back into her pack.

Her scream must have spooked him, Anon having run into a room, slamming the door closed behind him. Running up to it, she attempted to slam it open, only finding resistance. She continued to slam up against it but found herself incapable of getting in. Still, she continued to pound against it, hoping it would give way so she could reach Anon.

Immediately, the window to her side opened up, revealing Flitter. “Bon Bon, Anon jumped out the window! I saw him run in the forest, come on!”

“Why didn’t you follow him!” Bon Bon asked, following Flitter out the window.

“I’m not going to leave you here alone with all these rebels around, now come on!”

As they were about to run off into the forest, a spell blasted off between the two, rocketing past them; a rebel had found them.

Without warning, Flitter threw something down onto the ground. Bon Bon identified it as one of those weird nin balls Flitter showed her. It quickly enveloped the two of them in dark smoke. Before Bon Bon could react, she felt herself being pulled by something, and with no time she found herself at the edge of the forest.

“W-What the—” Bon Bon was surprised at the huge distance she just traveled. “Did you just teleport? Those ball things work?!”

“Just go after Anon, I’ll stop anyone from coming after you and catch up when I’m done!” Flitter turned to the unicorn that had slid to a stop. She let out a yell, throwing another ball down. When the smoke cleared, Bon Bon could see her now on top of the guard. “MAY THE POWER OF NIN CONSTRAIN YOU!!!”

Shaking her head from what just happened, she quickly ran off to where Anon had gone, hoping to catch up to 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

The further Anon went into the forest, the more muffled the sounds from the commotion coming from the base came to be. Not once did he try to stop or slow down, unsure if anyone was still following him or not. He was just happy he wasn’t dying from exhaustion from all the running: all that work on the farm and doing the odd thing here and there was paying off.

Still running at full speed, he leaped over rocks, barreled through any bushes in his path, and dodged around every tree that he came upon. Sure, he gained a few cuts along the way, his clothing was looking worse for wear, water seemed to attract to his feet and pants too well, and his body was telling him to slow down, but for the moment he was high on adrenaline and had a great need to get away from those ponies.

Something was feeling off about his run. He wasn’t breathing hard at all, and it almost seemed unnatural how well he was traversing through the area.

Without understanding what his actions had done, he felt himself turning completely right, nearly ripping his feet off the ground. Something in him thought it was a good idea to run this way. He wasn’t sure why, but it just felt like the correct choice for him.

He started to feel nauseated as if something was pounding away at his head. He chalked that one up to the amount of running he was currently doing.

Anon continued to run through the forest, feeling that odd sensation in him, almost guiding him about the place. It felt like safety was at hand when he followed through with it. He thought his instincts had sharpened up to him, something he was happy about.

Eventually, he found himself standing in front of a strange cave, holding his head from the horrible headache he was feeling, all the while sweating like mad. Anon hummed, thinking a cave would be a great place to hide for a moment’s rest.

“I do need to sit down for a moment, my head’s killing me,” he said, right before wiping something dripping down his nose. “Hmm?”

On his hand was blood. He frowned, wondering why he’d get a nosebleed at the strangest time. The place certainly wasn’t dry enough for it to occur naturally. Deciding not to think about it, lest he allows the ponies time to catch up to him, Anon walked slowly into the cave, doubtful the rebels would know of where he was located there.

Stepping inside, he noticed how much warmer it felt. The heat was surprisingly comforting to him, nearly making him forget his growing headache. Walking further in, he attempted to look around for someplace to sit and dry off.

Without warning, the cave went dark. Sensing something was wrong, he turned around to leave the cave, only now finding the entrance was gone, as if vanished due to magic.

‘Was it possible the ponies had found me? But why would they hide the entrance?’ A light chuckle could be heard, stopping his inner thoughts from continuing.

“Alright, who’s there?”

Another chuckle rang out, echoing off the walls. Trying not to panic Anon assessed the situation the best he could. It was difficult to see in the cave with no proper light source. There was nothing to defend himself with either. If it was just him and a single pony, he felt he might be able to handle it, but it was clearly a magic-user; that did not bode well for him.

Something shuffled right beside him, making him jump in fright. He squeezed against a wall, trying to focus on his current surroundings. Something snickered in the dark, only making him angry.

“Show yourself!” Anon yelled out, doing his best to put out some bravado.

The only response he was given was more chuckling. Anon immediately grabbed his head in pain, feeling dizzy. He placed his back against the wall once more, trying to keep himself steady on his feet. Whoever this was, it didn’t appear to be with the guards; why go through all of this when they could simply take him back?

“What do you want?!” Anon yelled out to the cave.

The moment he yelled that he felt something closing in around his neck, lifting him high into the air. He attempted to pull at whatever was holding him up but his body felt locked in place, unable to move. Whatever was around his neck pulled back before slamming him into a wall; he let out a grunt, feeling the wall jab into his back.

Anon could hear footsteps nearing him, a small ball of light appearing in front of him, floating midair.

Holding his breath, Anon was finding it difficult to comprehend what he was looking at: a tall, bipedal being that was completely covered from head to toe in pink hair. There wasn’t much to help identify if it was male or female with the lanky body it had. The one feature that unnerved him the most was its face that held a hideous smile that seemed to stretch across its face unnaturally, with jagged teeth gleaming in the light, and its horrid, black beady eyes staring back at him.

The arm of the creature stretched to his neck, holding him in place. And then, it let go. The arm retracted back to the creature, with clear-sounding pops resonating in the cave as if the arm was being shifted to fit its body. Anon held a hand around his neck, finding himself unable to move from where he was standing.

“Hello there,” the creature spoke out with a raspy voice. Somehow, its smile only grew wider, staring at him. “I have been waiting for a very, very long time to meet you human.”

“W-Who… what are you?”

Its jaw unhinged as the creature let out a screech of a laugh through the cave, bellowing its terrifying howling through the cave. The pink being ended its laugh with a low hum, tilting its head from side to side, inspecting his prey against the wall.

Anon felt himself being pulled toward the creature, being spun in the air as he flew right past it and into the darkness. He slammed his behind into something that had him sliding across the ground, teetering to fall over before it eventually landed upward.

Looking at what he had landed in, he could see it was a wooden chair. He looked toward where he was moments ago. Spotting nothing, Anon quickly took notice that the creature was now sitting in a large, ornate chair across from him. More of the glowing light balls floated in the air, illuminating things for the two of them.

The creature continued to smile at Anon in silence before it brought its elbows to the armrests of the chair, bringing its knuckles up to rest its chin on.

“You have no idea how love I have wanted to have this moment. It nearly drew me mad, having to be so patient with my actions. There was much temptation to speed things along, but no…” He dropped his right limb, letting his left hold his head up as he leaned into the side. “Everything had to be precise or it just. Wouldn’t. Work.”

The creature sighed, placing its left arm down as it leaned forward. The smile dropped, turning its long mouth into a stretched frown with little effort.

“You know, as I examine you, I found you a slight bit… grotesque.” The irony wasn’t lost on Anon hearing that. “I was expecting more. A pity. But your looks are not something that I require from you, thankfully.”

Leaning back into its chair, the pink beast crossed a foot onto its knee, putting both hands into its lap as its eerie smile returned.

The two of them sat in awkward silence, staring at one another. It made Anon nervous staring at whatever abomination this thing came from.

Scratching its head, the pink beast cracked its neck a few times. “So… to move things along I suppose, I’m certain you have some things you’d like to ask. I have time to spare, after all, what are a few minutes to someone like me? Oh, and you can stop thinking I’m going to do anything to you, for the moment that is.”

Anon let out an unsteady breath, trying his best to keep calm in his current situation. Repeating what he was told in his head, he attempted to appease the thing, giving it a question.

“Who, and what, exactly are you?”

It scratched its hairy chin in thought. “I don’t have a name, not one that was ever given to me that is. I suppose you can call me by what my siblings tossed my way. You may call me… Momus. As to what I am, that is not important. You had already been answered, as I had seen in your line. It should be blatantly clear just what I am from what you have been told, or is your feeble mind still hampered?”

Anon scrunched up his brow, uncertain what the beast meant by already knowing what it was. The being chuckled for whatever reason, waving its arm in the air as it went back to playing with its short, pink beard. The thing was toying with him for some unknown reason. Anon wasn’t sure how to go about this.

“Why am I here?”

The thing tilted its head to one side, letting out a small yawn. “You’re here because I want you to be here.”

“I mean, could you explain why?”

Momus hummed, turning its head toward Anon. “You are here because I, the one that holds your life currently, the one that so forced the lines to its will, wanted you here. I can’t simplify this anymore to appease your curiosity.”

It sat there in silence, a bored look appearing on its face as it stared down at Anon.

“I, um, hu, erm…”

Staring at Anon, a disgruntled look appeared on its face. With a snap, the entire cave lit up, the dreadful atmosphere lightening up.

“There was so much I had planned for you. You would have remained autonomous in your actions, and I would have had the outcome I had desired.” Momus clicked its tongue, “The only thing that needed to happen was for you to NOT have your blasted mind tampered with!”

“Do you mean Cross Love fixing whatever was wrong with me?”

Momus snorted, “Fixing you? I needed you to remain muted like that for only a little while longer until your magical potency increased to an acceptable degree. But no, now I’m left with you.” It leaned forward, narrowing its eyes. “And now I have to figure out how to fix my plans for you.”

“You keep saying that; what plans? Are you the reason I’m here in this world?”

“Of course I’m the reason you’re here. Who do you think gave that imbecile the magical essence needed to bring you here?” With a twist of its hand, a bottle with but a few drops of pink liquid appeared. “Do you know how long it took to drain my essence into a pure form? I barely have any left as it is!”

Another twist and the bottle disappeared. It flew up into the air, the chair disappearing as Momus stood on its legs, walking around the cave.

“The lines all matched up, and no matter what you did after this little fiasco, so long as your mind remained muted things would be fine. But now I have to work around this.”

“Why exactly are you doing all this?” Momus paused, scratching its chin. “I don’t understand why I’m important to any of this.”

“It’s not necessarily you that is important. I could have plucked so many other beings. But you gave me the highest degree of success, simply due to what you brought to the table. You’re a man that is, ultimately, quite boring. You’re simply normal, having once accepted going through the motions in life. But you always wanted more for yourself, such strong desires you held, and during college, you managed to push yourself with that little environmental group.

“You did so much for so many people; what a strong hero-complex you have. Ultimately, for me, I think the thing that solidified my choosing of you was that mugging you prevented.” Anon winced, remembering that event. “You still have a small scar right underneath your right armpit from the stabbing. Could have died right there, but you didn’t care about the consequences, only wanting to help once again. You managed to stop that woman from what would have happened to her, and trust me, pal, I knew her future was short-lived had you not appeared there.”

The chair appeared once more, Momus taking his time to sit back down. “Looking at the lines involving you, I have the best chance of success. Or at least, I did. Hmm. Should probably find some way to pay back Cross Love for that.”

It unnerved Anon how much this being knew of him. It was clear this thing had some major plans in store. “Can you please tell me what you have planned for me, whatever it is?”

Leaning back, Momus tapped the arm on his chair. “Your purpose to me is to be an end game piece. My time in this world has dwindled out and you’re the last thing I need to complete my goals.”

“And just what are your goals?”

The creature halted in its movements, turning to Anon as its smile stretched from ear to ear. “Why, to destroy the goals of another being,” it answered, right before slamming both of its arms down on the chair, its smile vanishing and turning into a snarl full of rage. “THAT SHAGGER DARES TO NOT ONLY OUTDO MY SIBLINGS WORK BUT HAVE THE GALL TO THINK HE HAS ME TRICKED INTO DOINGS HIS BIDDING! I WILL NOT STAND FOR THAT!!!”

The cave shook violently at his anger boiling over, nearly toppling Anon out of the chair. Forcing himself as far back into his chair as possible, he held the arms of his chair tightly, his knuckles turning white. He felt as if his entire form was bellowing in a tornado from the infuriated creature, it seemingly pushing a force into Anon.

As quick as it came, the shaking went away, along with the enraged Momus. Taking panting breaths, Anon willed himself to calm down from what had just occurred. Momus on the other hand simply stared at the human without any emotions showing, sitting there as if nothing had happened.

It let out a slow breath before going back to playing with its chin hair. “So, to my own goals, you’re of great importance. The lines I’ve read have shown many ways to go about all of this, but seeing as you’re now a part of this one, you can give me the best success rate to completing it than anything else I can do. I only have to… alter a few things, and then I can feel confident for the future.”

“S-So,” Anon stuttered, still trying to collect himself, “you want me to stop someone from completing their goals for your own reasons. Why would you think I would want to help you out?”

“Oh? Feeling rebellious?” Momus chuckled. “It doesn’t matter whether or not you want to, because, in the end, you’re going to do it anyway! I’m just… upping the success rate and ensuring it’s on the path I want it to be.”

“Can you just give me a straight answer?” Anon wasn’t ready to anger the thing but he was getting tired of this. “Who is this person that you want to be stopped? Why me for all this and not someone else?”

Momus tapped the arm of its chair, looking at him in thought. “I… suppose I can at least explain some of this; although it’s not as much fun for me, it would be nice to have shared this story with someone.” It coughed, trying to clear its throat dramatically. “Long, long ago, I lived wild and extravagantly, doing whatever I wished. It was me and my siblings, and we had a fun time doing whatever pleased us.

“Still, we knew we weren’t meant for longevity. Me being here is a fluke as it is. Truly, it was the end times for us and we did what we could for survival. After altering some things around, having seen the lines that would occur, I went into hiding as I could not follow my siblings where they went, something guiding me to stay. Around that time, I was simply trying to figure out what I should do now that things had changed in my life. And then… he came,” it hissed out, anger apparent on its face.

“He found me and somehow tricked me, ME! Oh if my siblings ever knew of this I’d be the laughing stock, me having been fooled into helping anyone! I had done his bidding unwittingly for many years, and when I eventually found out I was being used, I—” Looking as if he was about to blow up in a rage, he took a moment to calm himself down, humming some tune to do so. “I hadn’t used the lines all that often, finding predictability boring. But if I had done it more often as my siblings advised…

“As it is, I have a rather great disliking of this character. The only thing I could do at the time was to stall his plans, but it hadn’t stopped them. He’s going to finish them, and I am greatly interested in stopping them.”

He tugged on its chin hair, looking off into nothing as he reminisced over something or another, before looking back at Anon.

“I knew that it was temporary, and I intended to find a more permanent manner to screw with his plans, to have the last laugh. Unfortunately for me, the hero in my story, I had gone ahead and used some forbidden magic. It was a grave mistake, quite literally!” Momus let out a chuckle. “As a being made purely of magic, using such forbidden magic ate at my very core, which sapped me of many years in my life. But it allowed me the tools needed to spoil his plans, and all I needed were the last pieces of this plan: you.”

“I don’t even know if I want to help you,” Anon grunted out.

“Would it help if I said that his plans, should they come to fruition, would spell disaster for this world and all your little silly friends? Besides, I told you that you would help me whether or not you wanted to. I’ve already seen it all, now I just need it to be.”

Getting up from its chair, Momus appeared in front of Anon. It cupped his face with its hairy hands, making him feel queasy from the very touch. “Cross Love fixed your mind, and now you’re extremely potent to magic. Much too potent. You could even potentially outshine the future Princess of Friendship should you be left alone. I intend to fix that.

“What… exactly do you mean by fixing?”

“Why, I’ll be readjusting you so that you may be of some use to me. My magic is dying, drying out, and that means I’m going to die very soon. I will be depleting my magic to do some things that will gather his attention away from you as you sneak under everything I have done!”

Something about this had Anon morbidly curious, just why it would create such plans that would wind up killing it. “You’re willing to kill yourself for revenge? Aren’t you afraid to die?”

“What being isn’t afraid to die? We all have to accept it at some point, and I have already done so.”

“Won’t there be things you’ll miss?”

“Oh, of course, there are plenty of things I’ll miss, like how I’ll never again ask questions about things or be asked of things myself.” It let out a sigh, looking wistfully in the air. “I do love my questions. They are such wondrous things. They hold so much power, being capable of unraveling things and yet keeping away treasures at the same time. And there is a steady supply of them, always in demand. The only thing that truly makes them so fun is, of course, the answers you get, even the wrong ones! Oh dear, I shall miss them. Why recently I was contemplating if Celestia could have ruled these lands looking malformed, with a bucktoothed smile and a large zit forever planted right on her snout.”

Anon wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Why should her appearance affect how she ruled her lands? Would that have even mattered in the end?”

“That’s precisely why I bother with such questions!”

“Look, isn’t th—”

Momus shushed him, holding out its hand in the air. After a few seconds, it leaped out of the chair, using its magic to throw Anon onto his feet. “No more questions, for now, is the time of action!”

Anon looked at where the cave entrance used to be. Momus looked in that direction before snorting, “No one’s here Anon, and no one is coming to this cave. I’ve already used a magic-heavy spell to slow down time while we talked. I would have used a full time stop, but that would have drained me too much,” it mumbled out.

“Why did you shush me then?”

“Because I tire of hearing your voice and your uninteresting questions,” it answered. “Oh to know that these are the last questions I shall ever be given; what a terrible way to die!” Momus instantly popped in front of Anon, giving him another one of his terrifying smiles. “Now let’s get down to business! Oh, word of notice: the effects of this spell won’t immediately settle in you, but it will most assuredly hurt, a lot.”

“W-Wait!” Anon sputtered out, backing away. “I, I, I’ve still got questions! L-Like who exactly is this guy you want to be stopped? What did he do to you?”

“Sorry, I can’t tell you everything little human,” it said before grasping his head, “that would ruin the story! Now hold still so I can kill myself.”

An immense amount of pain jolted through his head, forcing him to scream out in shock. His body spasmed in the air as Momus held him up, tightening his hold on Anon’s head.

“Oh stop screaming, I’m just pinching your brain!”

Anon’s vision started to blur from the agony he was being put through, unable to bear it. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the smiling face of Momus, madly laughing at what was happening.

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

Groaning, Anon grasped his head in pain. It felt like something had clawed its way through it.

‘Oh, right. Momus quite literally did that.’

He found himself back outside in the forest, once more surrounded by trees and foliage. Looking around for the cave and the strange being, Anon turned toward where the cave was, only finding a smooth stone in its place. Examining it, he noticed a pile of pink hair only a few feet away from him, which he assumed used to be Momus. Did it simply poof out, with this being all that remained of it? That’s of course if it was telling the truth on it dying.

Rubbing his head, Anon wondered just what Momus had done to him, fearing it was something that could do long-term damage to him if left unchecked. He wanted to get back to civilization to get help on what had happened. For all he knew, the person Momus was targeting was one of the princesses, so they at least needed to be informed on this.

Ignoring the pounding that was going on in his head, Anon stood up, making his way once more through the forest. He soon found himself holding his clothing tighter, the cold making him shiver. The exhaustion from before was finally setting in, but he pushed on, hoping to find someplace to properly rest.

Just as he was about to head off, something loud could be heard to his right, alerting him that something was close by. Anon wondered if the guards had finally caught up to him. He had nothing to defend himself with to help get away and he was uncertain he could run if needed.

He looked around, hoping for someplace to properly hide, only to curse at his current area lacking such places. The bushes were too small, the trees too thin, and no ground to hide behind or in. All he could do was stand there, forced to confront whatever was coming his way.

Gritting his teeth, he got ready for whatever charged his way. But of all the things to come at him, he wasn’t expecting to see Bon Bon jumping out of the bushes, looking winded as she stared at him.

“Anon!”

“Bon Bon?

The mare ran up to him, jumping up to her hind legs to hug him. Seeing this, Anon bent down, weakly hugging her back.

“What are you doing out here? No, wait, stupid question.” Taking Bon Bon off of him, he placed her in front of him. “You should have stayed in Ponyville. Those rebels are out here a—”

“I already know about them, Anon,” Bon Bon interrupted. “The girls and I wanted to help bring you back s—”

“Wait, Bon Bon,” he interrupted back, “we can talk about this later after we get out of here, okay?”

She nodded, agreeing with him. “The girls are likely still at the base but I can send Flitter back while we head for the first tower back to Mercanville. Heading back to the base with you would be, well… stupid.” Giving her a nod, Anon stood back up before walking beside Bon Bon.

Hearing some sounds coming from where Bon Bon had come from, Anon turned around in that direction. “Did any of those ponies follow you?”

“Nah, I’m doubtful with Flitter having taken care of any that tried. I bet it’s either her and she’s coming down or maybe Lyra saw me running off for you a—”

She stopped, noticing a strange pony coming out of the bushes. Neither of them recognized the pony that was garbed in bright-colored armor.

“Ah, I knew that the night rebels had foalnapped somepony of importance, but for it to be the alien of Ponyville! Why now that is something.” The one that spoke walked toward Anon with a smirk. “How lucky of us to have stumbled upon you out here in the woods on one of our patrols near their base, and all alone…”

Anon stared down at the pony, a frown slowly forming on his face. “…You have GOT to be kidding me.”

It seemed that their luck had run dry, the day rebels stumbling across Anon and Bon Bon. Looking behind the pony in front, half a dozen more came out of the bushes, slowly surrounding them. There were too many of them to escape, especially with quite a few of them being unicorns. Things just couldn’t get worse for the two of them.

“Hold on, Anon!” Bon Bon screamed out before throwing something down at the ground in front of him.

The black smoke quickly enveloped the two of them in an instant, forcing the day rebels to step back in shock. Anon was surprised that Bon Bon had something like that, and that she was even attempting something that was more in line with a ninja movie. The candy mare immediately grabbed a hold of his leg, confusing Anon a fair bit.

“Uuuuuh… shouldn’t we be running away now?” Anon asked her.

Just as quickly as the smoke came, the smoke cleared out with the two still standing there, now with very confused ponies staring at them.

Bon Bon started to look around, confused as to what had happened herself. “DARN IT, FLITTER! IT DIDN’T WORK!!!”

Anon could only smack himself in the forehead, realizing she thought their getaway would be instantaneous. And so, with their prize in sight, the day rebels made their way to the two for capture…

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

Flitter could only let out a sigh, watching what had just happened to take place. “You’re supposed to nin away when you throw that down,” she murmured to herself. “It doesn’t just work with making you disappear instantly; you have to believe in the nin to make it work.”

Watching the two being taken by the group of day rebels was not something she could help with by herself. Anything she could try would just wind up with her being captured as well. The best thing she could do is go back to the base and get help, fast. She had hoped getting to Lyra and her sister in time could allow them to give chase before they got too far away.

That thought went right out the window when she saw the entire group teleporting out of sight.

“…Ah, crud.”

‘That sure makes things more difficult,’ Flitter thought as she threw a smoke ball down in front of her.

She was now in the sky, flying off into the air at nin speeds.

‘Lyra can get us to the next base quick enough to get him and Bon Bon back. I’m just hoping she won’t be too upset about what happened…’

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

Lyra was a very upset pony.

She had been looking for Anon all over the base and still hadn’t found a single clue as to where he might be. Building after building, and there was absolutely nothing to where he might be in the base.

‘Did they stow him away in some weird underground passageway, only accessible by some crazy spell?’

‘Or did they turn him invisible so you’d never be able to find him, even if he was directly in front of you?’

Lyra slapped herself, shaking her head furiously as she attempted to keep those idiotic thoughts away for the moment. Anon was likely just in a building she hadn’t checked, that was all.

Going up to a window she had just jumped into, Lyra motioned toward where Cloud Chaser should be to see if she could go back out. The only thing going her way at the moment as she hadn’t run across any rebels as of yet.

Waiting for a reply, she paused, realizing something wasn’t right about the situation. Looking around the room, she noticed the problem: nothing was shaking. Why had Vinyl and Octavia stopped their music? Did something happen to them? Did they have to retreat?

Looking back out the window, Lyra could see Cloud Chaser was in the sky, looking around above the trees. Seemingly finished, she flew back down and landed beside the building Lyra was at. She appeared quite worried.

“Lyra, the music stopped playing,” she said.

“I kind of noticed that.”

“Yeah, I figured. So I flew up in the sky to see why that was and noticed two ponies talking to Vinyl and Octavia for some reason. I don’t know what happened, but Octavia pointed me out in the air and one of them flew up, just close enough to speak to me. He told me to come over and bring you to talk with them.”

She furrowed her brow, “Did he say anything else?”

“No, just to come over. It doesn’t look like they’re willing to fight anymore though, so that’s something?”

‘This could be a trap,’ she thought, pacing the room. ‘But then, why would they set something up when they already have those two? Is it possible they’re willing to give up Anon and have us leave?’

“This is so confusing,” Lyra grumbled out, looking at Cloud Chaser. “How many ponies were there?”

“I only saw a few of the rebels still standing, with the majority around them either too exhausted to do much or are on the ground, knocked out.”

Lyra hummed before slowly making her way to the window. “There isn’t much we can do with Vinyl and Octavia over there with the other rebels. We need to make sure they’re safe and to see what they want.”

“Right,” she said, jumping out the window.

Jumping out herself, Lyra followed Cloud Chaser back to where she saw them last. Once there, Lyra could see there weren’t a lot of ponies surprisingly. Right now, she could only see six in her vicinity knocked out, with two indeed looking very exhausted. There were currently two pegasi that Cloud Chaser had mentioned, standing in front of Vinyl and Octavia. Making her way up to them, the others turned to her direction.

“So… you’re the one that’s messing with my ponies,” a unicorn spoke, someone that Lyra quickly took as the leader. He looked at the four of them before speaking up, “Aren’t there supposed to be six of you?” None of them responded as Lyra simply glared at him. “What exactly do you ponies want, attacking us like this? It’s clear you’re not with the day rebels.”

“You foalnapped someone important to us and we’re here to get him back, you jerks!” Lyra was not wanting to be very civil.

“That alien?” one of the earth ponies to the side said. “What makes you think we—”

“You can locate him in the far building in a cell,” the unicorn leader said. “Tell Rocky and Roller the alien is to be released, code passage for them is Chindi, Omega, Odyssey, Cauldron. They will proceed to release it and you can be on your merry way.”

“S-Sir! You’re just releasing the alien, just like that?!” The earth pony beside the one that spoke glared at the earth pony, who immediately shut up.

“…Why are you giving him up so easily?” Lyra asked, uncertain about his actions.

“We have no reason to have him here any longer.”

“How do we know you’re not tricking us?”

By now, Vinyl and Octavia had already made their way around the other ponies and stood beside Lyra, their equipment packed but on either side of them, ready to be used if needed.

“We have no use for your alien friend any longer. Our priorities have changed due to recent information that has been discovered. Now, if you would be so kind as to collect the human and leave us in peace…”

“Lyra, let’s just go get Anon,” Vinyl said, trying to move her along.

Looking at the rebels once more, Lyra was still uncertain about what was happening. The ones still conscious were attempting to stir awake the ones previously knocked out.

“Why are they even giving up,” Lyra asked herself. “We’re just to go along as we can… trust them? I don’t it, it’s just… I…”

“It’s odd, I know,” Octavia said, placing a hoof on her shoulder, “but in the end, we’ve got what we came for, so let’s go collect Anon and get out of here.”

Vinyl helped turn Lyra away, forcing her in the direction where they said that Anon was being held. Holding back her tongue from the rebels, Lyra simply followed with them. She too wanted to get it all over with and go home with Anon.

Nearing the building, the four of them slowed down, spotting Flitter flying toward them. She hit the ground at an angle, sliding to a stop a little ways away from them. “G-G-G—”

“Whoa there,” Cloud Chaser said, flying up to her. “Take a few breaths and calm down.” She looked at her sister, then around her vicinity. “Uhhh, where’s Bon Bon? YO BON BON, YOU CAN COME OUT!”

“Bon Bon… she… she was…” Flitter tried to catch her breath to the best of her ability as the rest of the group walked up to her. “She… was taken.”

“WHAT?!” Lyra yelled. “Who took her?! I knew those darn rebels here were up to something when they were just giving up Anon like that!”

“No, n-not them,” she answered. “Bon Bon… ran out into… the forest after—” Flitter took a large gulp of air, finally getting her breath back. “She went after Anon who somehow escaped when we got to the base. She got to him and was returning when the other rebels, the day rebels… they took them.”

‘Don’t scream, Lyra. Keep yourself focused and clear-headed.’

Lyra, of course, was feeling extremely upset and angered hearing this. And besides, Lyra didn’t need to necessarily add to Octavia, who was doing quite enough screaming at the moment.

“What do you MEAN they were taken by the rebels?!” Octavia yelled out, shaking Flitter by the shoulders. “We were so close, SO CLOSE, to being done with this excruciating trip, AND NOW THIS?!”

“We shouldn’t be arguing, Octavia,” Vinyl grunted out, pulling her away from a dizzy Flitter. “We should be heading out and getting them back! They couldn’t have gotten too far from here with those two after all!”

“Actually,” Flitter mumbled out while shaking her head, “they teleported the two away from here with magic, likely directly to their base…”

NOW Lyra was screaming.

“How are we supposed to collect him now?” Cloud Chaser asked, plopping her butt on the ground. “We just got done with the rebels here; now we have to deal with another group of these ponies?!”

“It’s also going to take a while to get there,” Vinyl added, gaining a loud groan from Octavia. “I only know basic teleportation and unless Lyra has upgraded her teleportation skills as of late, I doubt we can pull any of you along for the ride, let alone past a few trees altogether.”

‘Think Lyra, think! There has to be some way to get to the base quickly and retrieve the two as soon as possible before they do anything to the two of them.’

Looking at the others interacting with one another, Lyra came up blank for options to go by.

‘What should I do?!’

Walking there would take at least two days to travel if we ran, and she wasn’t coming up with any other options to get there.

‘Alright then… what would stupid Lyra try and do right now?’

Pausing, a series of ideas came to her on some rather absurd things she could try. And just like that, the answer came to her. A slow smile spread across her face, which the others noticed quickly.

“You’ve got a plan to get us there, don’t you?” Vinyl asked.

Lyra simply gave her a larger smile. “I’m thinking that we could always take the tree express to their base…”

Octavia’s eyes widened to extreme levels, reacting immediately upon hearing that. “No, NO! NOO! Please, no! I’m not going on another one of those idiotic trips! Solaire please no!”

“But T—”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“…But Tavi, it’s the only way!” Vinyl told her, levitating the reluctant mare in the air.

Octavia squealed, kicking in the air. “Let me down this instant! I refuse to go!”

“Nope!” Vinyl responded, following Lyra into the forest. “So we just need a really large tree and we can blast our way there!”

“It’s not as simple as that,” Lyra replied, examining a tree before passing it up and continuing forward with the others following along. “It might need two trips with how far away they are, so we’d have to recuperate and find another tree for a second trip.”

“Lyra, my speakers are much more powerful than they used to be. And our magic can easily push things to the limits since we’re older now.”

“I… suppose that’s true.” Looking at another tree, Lyra also passed it up. “There also won’t be as much weight with just us three since Flitter and Cloud Chaser can fly along. Though I hope they can keep up.”

“Puh-lease,” Cloud Chaser said, flying up to her. “We’re plenty fast, we can keep up! Why I can easily keep pace with Dash herself!”

“Are you sure about that?” Flitter asked with a smirk. “Last I recall you talking to her you mentioned you could lap all of Ponyville in a minute. She only told you it was “fifty seconds too slow for me” and flew around the town in ten seconds.”

“Sh-Shut up!” Cloud Chaser sputtered out, to which Flitter giggled.

“I don’t wanna goooooo,” Octavia groaned out, still kicking in the air.

“We’re not going to just leave you here all by yourself, so you— EEEEH!” Vinyl ran up to a large tree, clamping herself around the trunk of it. She unconsciously forced Octavia to do the same, still stuck in her spell. “It’s PERFECT!” Oh, you are SO going to get us to great places, tree of largeness and funky flight!”

“I, I’m not so sure I trust your judgment here at all!” Octavia screamed, or more like muffled out.

“It’s the perfect size though, AND the bark looks wicked awesome!” Vinyl took a large sniff, smiling afterward. “Plus, it also smells like the stuff I get from Zecora.”

“…Oh sweet Solaire, it does! Why does it smell like that stuff?” Octavia let out a groan as Lyra sized up the tree, agreeing with Vinyl.

Flashing her horn up for a spell, she pulled the two mares off the tree before proceeding to cut it at the base. The moment it started to fall, Vinyl helped with catching it with her magic, slowing it down to the best of her ability. It soon dropped to the ground in a loud thump. Lyra had Flitter remove the limbs of the tree while Vinyl and Lyra proceeded to move the other trees around them for the room, leaving Cloud Chaser to figure out the direction they would need to go.

Soon enough, they had the tree set up so it was hanging in the air by the surrounding trees, suspended by ropes and magic. It took a few hours to get it done, but it would hopefully wind up with getting them there in around thirty or so minutes to their base. It would have been easier to work all of this if Octavia had stopped complaining to them the entire time.

Cloud Chaser soon flew back, dropping down to the ground. “Point it left about twelve degrees and we should be ready to go!”

Lyra and Vinyl together flared their horns, the ropes tightening, angling the tree in the direction needed.

“Alright everypony, get on!” Vinyl yelled out, teleporting to the back of the tree.

Octavia sat in the middle while Lyra took the front. The two pegasi got on opposite sides of the tree for their positions.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Cloud Chaser asked, tapping the tree. “I don’t see how you managed to get this to go up in the sky the last time.”

“Well, it worked, so we should be able to do it once more,” Lyra answered, trying to get comfortable. “Alright then!” she yelled out, grabbing a rope that was tied around the base so she had something to hold onto. “Grab your ropes and get ready!”

“Y-You know what? I think I can p-probably just… go back and… get things ready at Mercanville f-for all of you,” Octavia stuttered out, “get things r-ready so when you all get back, I—”

“RELEASE!”

The tree dropped from its place, falling to the ground. Vinyl immediately started her speakers up as Lyra balanced her end to continue pointing up. The tree quickly rocketed off into the air, gaining speed as it climbed into the clouds.

Octavia’s screams filled the airs as the five of them tore through the sky like crazy, ready to drop a hot load of tree bombardment onto the base of the day rebels.

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

Sitting down, Anon stared across from the cell he was now sitting in. It was much brighter than the other cell he was previously in, and the ponies here almost seemed somewhat more intelligent. Though he knew if he gave it time, he’d find them just as idiotic as the others.

‘I sure wish they’d stop staring at me,’ he thought. The guard on duty hadn’t left her eyes off of him since he had arrived, taking her task very seriously.

Oddly, she had barely taken a glance at Bon Bon, who was sitting a few feet away from him. ‘She probably doesn’t feel she’s a big of a threat as I am.’

He stretched himself, trying to get comfortable as he leaned his back against the wall.

“A-Anon, I d—”

“For the last time Bon Bon, it’s not a big deal. So you goofed up with your escape plan, so what? It’s not the end of the world.”

‘As far as I know anyway.’

“I just feel so stupid, not realizing what that ball Flitter gave me was for.”

“Sure, it sucks things didn’t turn out as we wanted it, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

“I just hope Lyra and the others get here soon,” she muttered quietly so the guard didn’t hear her.

Anon scooted closer to Bon Bon, something the guard narrowed her eyes at. “Not too close to one another,” the guard ordered, something Anon blankly looked back at. Looking at Bon Bon, then back to the guard, he gave her the middle finger. “I don’t understand your alien paw junk, stupid head.”

“…Bon Bon, how do I properly translate this over?”

“Ah, like this,” she said before looking directly at the guard, and then sticking her tongue out at her, slightly crossing her eyes.

The guard jerked away, offended at the sight. “You’re going to regret that prisoner…”

Anon then proceeded to mimic Bon Bon, watching the face of the mare guard redden in anger.

Anon smirked, turning back to Bon Bon. “I’m not so sure if I like the idea of them following us back to this base. I also don’t like how you all came to the last base either, putting yourselves in danger. You did mention there was another group out here to rescue me, so why did you all have to get involved?”

“I… we all just wanted to help, not stand by and wait to hear if you ever come back or not! Besides, we did come out before the other group to get you first. It… sort of worked. I mean, we did find you first.”

“I suppose you did,” Anon agreed, rustling her mane. She shook her head, twitching her ears about before looking up at him with a pout. “Still wish you had let the others deal with this instead of dealing with it yourself.” Bon Bon harrumphed, shuffling in her spot. Anon figured a change of topic would be good. “Though, did you need to bring your lab coat along? A bit… odd don’t you think?”

“…It makes me feel better.” He chuckled as he laid back against the brick wall. “Do you feel better now, Anon? I mean, is your head hurting or do you feel tired? I don’t know what the other guards did, so…”

“Nah, they didn’t do much at all. Though I am feeling much better with some rest, almost like that headache was never there.” Anon sniffed, “That stupid creature in that cave sure did mess me up good.”

“W-What?” Oops, he hadn’t wanted to bring that up. “What creature?”

Anon rubbed the back of his head, “It’s nothing, Bon Bon. I can worry about whatever he did to my head when I get back.”

“Your head? Did someone fight you?” she asked worryingly. “Are you sure it doesn’t hurt anymore?”

“No, I’m all fine Bon Bon.” She continued to stare at him. He rolled his eyes, “Something out in the forest… used magic on my head.” She gasped, knowing what that meant. “It’s nothing. I mean that weird doctor at the other base did something to my head as well. That's another thing to add. I’ll have it checked out when we get back.”

Bon Bon was about to say something when the cell door opened with two ponies coming in. They both looked at Anon, slowly walking forward. “The alien comes with us.”

“I have a name you know,” he said, standing up. “What do you want with me?”

The ponies did seem intimidated with the size he dominated them over with, “S-Somepony wants to ask you some questions,” one of them answered. “Now get over here so we can get going.”

Walking up to them, they tied his hands with some rope before gesturing for him to follow them out. It didn’t take long for Anon to find himself in a brightly lit room with a unicorn sitting down at a table. It looked like someone poured a ton of white paint on him and his extremely shiny armor and white cape. It nearly hurt to look at him.

The two ponies reacted with astonishment at seeing the pony sitting there, quickly saluting him. “S-Sir Luminesce! We didn’t know you’d be back so soon!”

“I couldn’t just let our guest not be properly left unaddressed. I’ll be taking over the duties of the… interview with him. Untie him and then go about your duties as usual.”

“S-Shouldn’t we stand by outside and await further orders after you’re through with the prisoner?”

Luminesce glared at the pony who questioned him. The guard gulped hard before slowly walking out with the other pony, closing the door behind them.

“I certainly am glad to have gotten back sooner than originally planned. Oh, where are my manners? Please, take a seat,” the unicorn pleasantly said, waving a hoof at a chair that was just his size. Doing so, Anon sat in silence as the pony examined him. “What a fascinating being you are. I had had my eye on you for quite some time, curious as to whom and what exactly you are. You… yes, you can be of use to me.”

“Oh? You plan on trying to ransom me back to the princesses as well?”

The unicorn chuckled, “No, nothing as silly as that. Why would I ransom back someone like you to somepony that won’t be in power much longer?”

Anon went to reply and then paused, replaying what he just said. “Don’t you mean to put Princess Celestia as the main ruler?”

Luminesce smiled wide, sitting up taller before leaning forward. “Ah, how much fun it has been, leading everyone astray like little puppets. No, I don’t mean to put her in power.”

“…So is it Luna? Or what am I missing here?” Anon could already tell where this was going from what the previous rebels had gone by.

“Why I plan on ousting the both of them, and soon, I shall be in charge of all Equestria!” The unicorn let out his version of a villainous laugh, “Geeeeh-ge-ge-ge-ge-geeeh!” It was stupidly hilarious.

“So… all that fighting with the night rebels—”

“All planned from the start!” the stallion giddily interrupted. “Their “commander” over there works with me in keeping our activities out of the light. Oh, how fun it’s been pitting the two groups together in secrecy!”

“Why do you want to take the two princesses out of power then?”

Luminesce shrugged, “What else for? The power they control over everything of course! Simple, no?”

Anon frowned, “Why are you telling me all of this?”

The pony sat back in his chair, still smiling. “Multiple reasons, I admit. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to reveal all of this, just to let it all out! It truly feels good, right?”

“That’s… not a very good reason…”

Luminesce sighed, ‘True. Yet, it matters not if you know this or not, it’s not like you can do much with the information. The second reason, of course, is quite important, and that is to convince you to work for me.”

“…What?”

“You heard me. I know that you have a massive collection of knowledge about your world, far advanced compared to our own. Such a wealth of power, all up in that noggin of yours. Add to what you represent to the nations of this world, and it’s an extremely desirable thing to have you! I want that to help rule the empire I will plan to build for a better, more prosperous Equestria!”

“I—”

“Yes, I can see it now: Equestria would prosper greatly into a new age of achievements so wild, so powerful, giving us a clear advantage against all the other races! You, of course, would be one of the few privileged in our new lands.”

There was quite a bit Anon would love to point out to the buffoon currently sitting across from him who aspired to be the future leader of Equestria. Anon didn’t have a whole lot of knowledge that he thought would be of use. Sure, with time he could work out certain things they could recreate, but magic trumped a lot of things in that regard.

Regardless, the guy wasn’t exactly the brightest in Anon’s eyes, which was ironic given who he was. As it was for the night rebels, Anon couldn’t see things going his way on Equestrian domination. Anon, of course, didn’t care about any of this. He was just tired of it all.

“Look, if you knew anything about me you’d know I wouldn’t want a part of any of this.”

“Are you worried about the outcome of your friends? I ensure you that they’ll be taken care of as well, though the Elements might have a touch of imprisonment for a good while.”

“No, I’m certain they can take care of themselves. Regardless of that, all the problems that crop up from you taking over are too countless. Can you raise that stupid sun and moon? Can you fight off the countless attacks that seem to happen every few months, from what I’ve heard about? I don’t think you can do any of that at all. Even still, there’s nothing you can do to convince me to help.”

He tilted his head at Anon, looking blankly at him. “I can be very convincing to get what I want, Anon the human. I can either get your cooperation in this or eventually rip the information from your skull. In time though, you’ll change your views and turn to my side. Now that I think about it…” He got up from his chair and walked up to him, his horn glowing white. “Maybe I should show you that I’m being serious…”

Standing up himself, Anon slowly backed away from the pony. “Look, I can’t take magic like that in my head. You should know that if you read the reports, right?”

Luminesce stopped momentarily, thinking on that. “Hmm. I do recall something about that in some papers. Still, I am a very curious pony. I’m certain it won’t damage you that much and I do have to prove a point to you. I hope you understand, right?” Luminesce walked slowly to him, his horn glowing brightly. “Juuuuuuust a peak.”

Backing up against the wall, Anon watched as the tip of the pony’s horn started to sparkle before shooting straight toward his head. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable pain that was soon to come.

…Yep, aaaaany time now, to tear his brain asunder and all that horrendous crap.

Opening his eyes, he stared at Luminesce, who was giving Anon a funny look. Shaking off his confused state, the pony attempted to blast him once more. Watching it this time, the spell blasted up against his head before fizzling away into nothing. Anon hadn’t even felt the magic at all when it touched him.

“What trickery is this?” Luminesce asked. “Do you have some sort of magical defense set up you’ve never spoken about? No, no that can’t be it, the ponies teleporting you would have brought it up, so what—”

Without warning, the entire room shook, throwing the two of them at the ground. The room felt much, much colder than before, with the entrance door and the wall looking frosted over.

“W-What is this?!” the pony screamed out, looking around in confusion before looking at Anon. “Yoooouuu… What spell is this?! I knew my reports couldn’t be trusted! You, YOU did this!”

During this time, Anon had already gotten up on his knees, grabbing a chair to help him stand up. Luminesce saw this and threw spell after spell at him, only to have them fizz away into nothing upon touching his body. Red, green, yellow, white: none of the colors, whatever they were to the unicorn, seemed to be working. “WHY AREN’T MY SPELLS WORKING ON YOU?!”

Grabbing the chair, Anon swung it directly at the pony, slamming it into his body before he could react. Luminesce slumped to the ground, groaning in pain. Starting to feel the chill getting to him, Anon threw the chair he was holding at the unicorn once more before making his way out of the door.

Noticing the door had frozen, Anon hoped he could muster enough strength to break it down. Once he grabbed the handle, the door immediately started to unthaw, the ice accumulated on the door turning into water that dripped down and away from him. He could only look on, astonished at what was happening, only to put it aside so he could get out of there. Closing the door, it started to freeze once more.

“That’s… something to look into,” he muttered to himself before running back toward the cells.

The run there didn’t take very long with how close they were. Arriving, he noticed the cell door was open and the pony guard’s unconscious legs were tied up much like cattle on a farm.

‘Bon Bon must’ve already gotten out somehow,’ he thought, running back down the hall.  ‘It’ll be a pain looking for her around here since she’s likely looking for me as well.’

There was nothing he could do about that, only hoping to run cross her as he looked for a way out. Running down the halls, he could see they were all frozen or in the process of being frozen. None of the ice impeded his escape, quickly vanishing upon his touch as if it was trying to escape his vicinity.

Stopping for a moment, he saw a row of windows in the hall he just went into. Looking out to see what there was and how his chances held up when going out, the sight he was greeted to shocked him as he tried to make sense of it.

There, out in the distance, was something that slithered about in the sky, using its magic with glee. It reminded Anon of Trogdor as it skated on an ice rink, throwing the rebels around while laughing like crazy. Anon could see most of the buildings were frozen over, with animals on top of them cheering at the spectacle, some of them even holding scoreboards.

That was when a very large tree of Armageddon came out from the sky, crashing straight into the building he was in.

Braced for impact, Anon wobbled about as the building shook, nearly knocking him off his feet. Waiting for it to subside, Anon looked back out of the window for a few moments.

“Go outside to meet that, or look for another exit… Yeah, let’s look elsewhere.”

“YOU!!!”

Turning around, Anon saw Luminesce standing at the end of the hall he had come from, looking beat up and extremely angry.

“I have NO idea how you managed to stop my magic OR how you brought this destruction upon my base, but it’s not going to stop me from the payback that will ensue!”

“Wait, you think I had anything to do with this? Man, screw you!”

“You WILL submit to me, one way or another!”

Just then, Anon noticed a very large pile of chairs floating behind the pony. Luminesce took one from behind with his magic before blasting it forward at Anon. Dodging it to the side, the chair hit his left arm, being unable to get away fast enough. The chair immediately slowed down once it touched him, but it still felt like someone had body-slammed his arm.

“How do YOU like chairs being thrown at you?!” he screamed, getting ready for another. “Sucks when you’re on the other end, DOESN’T IT?!?!?!”

Grabbing his arm in pain, Anon looked at the pony preparing another chair. Deciding he didn’t like being hit, he turned around, running down the hall.

What followed next was nothing more than a very long chase, going from hall after hall, with Luminesce throwing miscellaneous objects at Anon. Though it was mostly chairs, lots and lots of chairs. His only saving grace was that the icy rooms gave way to Anon while giving the pony trouble navigating through.

Eventually, Anon found himself in a very large room with crates all around the wall, with a skylight on the roof illuminating the place. Looking at his surroundings, Anon couldn’t seem to find any other way out of the room other than where he came from.

Letting out a thousand curses, he turned around to confront Luminesce who just happened to have come in. The pony, breathing heavily, levitated the last chair that he had beside him, glaring at Anon with anger.

In an instant, a smile appeared on his face. “As you can see, I get what I want in the end. If I want something to satisfy my needs, I get it. If I want to be a ruler, I get it. And if I wanted someone to kneel to me, beaten down into submission, well, I’m going to get it one way or another.” His smile quickly dropped. “AND GUESS WHAT I WANT RIGHT NOW?!?!?!”

“…A belly rub?”

The pony was shocked, uncertain how to reply to that, giving Anon a few seconds to figure things out. There weren’t many options he had at the moment: he could either take a rough beating or attempt to take a stand and maybe only get beaten a little.

With that in mind, Anon ran at the pony, getting ready to block the chair that he would throw at him. Luminesce didn’t even attempt to move out of the way, overconfident in himself as the chair flew at Anon. The chair, like before, impacted his left arm, forcing him to yell out in pain. It slowed him down momentarily but he continued.

Luminesce looked at the human in surprise, clearly not expecting this. He threw a spell at him instinctively, forgetting they did not affect him as the spell fizzled upon contact. The pony attempted to turn away and dodge, but Anon was able to get him before he could react. Quickly grabbing his horn, Anon held the pony in place before he could get away.

The first thing Anon did was kick him in the gut, knocking the wind from him. He then proceeded to pick up his body, lifting him in the air and slamming him over his knee.

Luminesce squealed out, kicking his hooves about for a few seconds. Anon wasn’t done, not by a long shot. Ignoring the pain in his arm he lifted the pony into the air once more, positioning him so that his body was suspended in the air, head nestled into Anon’s shoulder, with Anon holding his hindquarters apart.

“Ready for a trip to pain town?!”

“I’m not ready for a trip to pain town!”

“ALL ABOOOAAARD!”

Jumping into the air, the pony screaming the entire way, Anon twirled around before slamming straight into the ground. Throwing him behind his shoulders, the pony dropped to the ground, wheezing in pain. Anon took a few moments to regain his breath, completely exhausted.

The pony wheezed out in his unconscious state, making Anon feel relieved he was unlikely to be getting up. Swiping off some sweat from his brow, he let go of the horn, sitting up.

“This is so stupid,” he said to himself, wincing at the pain in his arm.

‘First I was kidnapped not once, but twice. Then some weird magical molestation from my worst nightmare happened in a dark, spooky cave, and then there was this chase sequence before I had to fight off a pony that wanted to take over Equestria.’

“This does feel like a stupid cartoon. I’ve got to start remembering that so I can better plan things out. Man, can’t things be simple in magic pony land?”

Standing up, he let out a sigh of relief, hoping to find Bon Bon and get out of the place. Walking toward the door, he immediately flew across the room, the wind knocked out of him from a chair hitting him out of nowhere.

“I’m… not finished with you… human…”

Of course, Luminesce was still conscious, why wouldn’t he be?

Grimacing in pain, he turned to the unicorn, watching him wobble to his legs, standing upright as he turned to him. Slowly walking forward, he levitated the broken chair over Anon in a threatening manner.

“Looks like… I… win…” he panted out with a smirk.

It started with a smile, that turning into a chuckle before Anon let out a boisterous laugh. Tears streamed down his face, looking at the confused pony, who only seemed to be getting angrier as Anon laughed.

“And what exactly do you find hilarious about this situation?”

“B-Because－” He wiped away a tear, trying to avoid the pain in his arm “－this is clearly the part where you’re defeated by some completely random action out of nowhere!”

He simply went back to laughing, the pony confused by Anon’s words. At that moment right above him, one of the windows exploded with something coming straight down. It only took a moment to realize what it was: Octavia, careening downward with her cello, screaming the entire way.

Luminesce, once more caught off-guard, didn’t have any time to act before the cello slammed down on top of his head with a resounding ‘BONK’.

Octavia did a flawless somersault in the air from the impact, landing perfectly on her hooves. Her cello, on the other hand, was a complete mess being broken in half. The unicorn that was hit had stars in his eyes as he teetered to one side, and then the other, right before slamming to the ground, completely out of commission.

A second window above Anon could be heard smashing open. Looking up once again, he could spot a mint colored pony flying toward him.

“AAAAAAAAAAAANOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!”

This time, he was the one caught off-guard as Lyra body slammed into his gut, knocking him out on the spot…

~End Chapter Nineteen~





Chapter Twenty – Reunited


“There we go! I do hope the patient’s doing well.”

Moaning, Anon woke up to someone stirring him awake. His left arm felt like it was stuck in some contraption, like a cast. Something was poking around at his body, slowly making its way from his stomach up to his chest.

“Perhaps the patient would like… a treat?” someone said sensually. “Hmm, yes he would.”

Shooting his eyes open, it took a moment to see straight. Even still, as his eyes started to clear, he could see something quite unexpected: It was Crumble, attempting to give him a sultry look while it wore a cookie nurse outfit.

Screaming in terror, the cookie made a jump for his opened mouth. He turned his head to the side just in time, blocking the cookie access to his mouth. It merely bounced off his cheek and onto the bed, which then climbed right up the linens in an instant to try once more.

“I know nobody likes hospital food, but I can assure you I’m quite scrumptious!” The cookie walked up to his head, pushing against it. Anon shook his head, trying to get the cookie off. “Oh come on now! I got dressed up and everything for this!” The cookie jumped on his chest and turned around, shaking her tail at him. “I know you want soooooome!”

Turning his head at the cookie, Anon inhaled deeply through his mouth before throwing a mighty gust of air at the cookie. It flew off away from him with a squeal, rolling away down his chest. It was just then that the door opened with the room filling with ponies he recognized, coming in and looking worried.

“Anon!” Vinyl exclaimed. “We heard you screaming and—”

Everyone’s eyes were directed at the cookie, trying to stand back up. The cookie looked around the room at the ponies, chuckling.

“There you are!” Pinkie squeaked out, rushing to the cookie. “I’ve been looking all over for you!” She bent down with her head near the cookie. “Didn’t work, huh?” she whispered.

“Nooo,” it whispered back.

“Pinkie, why are you trying to help this cookie molest my mouth?”

Pinkie did her best to look offended, failing of course. “Whaaaaat? Nooooo, I would never do such a thing!”

“…Why does the cookie have a nurse outfit baked on?”

The pink mare looked off to the side, scrunching her face up. Anon could only sigh, watching Pinkie swipe the cookie away and backing off from the rest before leaving the room.

“How are you doing?” Twilight asked, walking up to the foot of the bed.

“Fine, I suppose. Feeling pretty stiff at the moment.”

“It’s probably due to the effects of our treatments,” a nurse piped in. “We had to use herbal remedies on you.”

Looking at her, Anon could see she was examining some weird machines that were hooked up to his head, something he only just then noticed.

“Why is my head—”

Anon paused, remembering the creature from the cave. Bon Bon likely told them about it and they’re looking over it to ensure he was fine.

Feeling something on his right, he looked over and saw Lyra staring at him with watery eyes. “I’m sooooooowwwwwrrrryyyyyyyyyy,” she whined out.

“For what?”

“…Kn-Knocking you out.”

“Oh, that,” he said, remembering her slamming into him. It was a slight pain to go through all of that and to have Lyra giving him the KO in the end. “It’s not like you meant to do that, though warn me next time you decide to try and pile drive me into the ground.”

Bending down toward the floor, Lyra came back up with a bowl, pushing it toward him. “I made you some pudding…”

“Oh, um… thanks…” he said, grabbing the bowl.

‘There’s no spoon,’ he thought to himself, staring at the dish.

“If everypony could leave the room, I would like to talk to Anon alone,” Princess Celestia spoke out with a strange, motherly tone attached to her authority.

“What should we do now, princess?” Twilight asked as everyone started to leave, all but Lyra who only continued to look at Anon sadly.

Bon Bon walked up to her, taking a bite of her tale before tugging on it, pulling her out the door. “Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu,” Lyra whined the entire way.

“I’ve already told you that you should take a break from all the work you’ve been doing,” Celestia told Twilight with a small frown.

“I just want to be helpful, princess. I don’t have much to do right now anyway, what with no library here.”

“You should probably go out and visit the area with your friends then; this is a place where traders from all across the world happen. It would be a great learning experience. There should also be a research facility here that Lyra is very familiar with. You might convince her to take you there.”

“Okay, princess,” Twilight said dejectedly, making her way out the door.

“I do remember a certain assistant coming along on the ride here, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, something that perked Twilight up. “He should be at the hotel where we’re staying.” Twilight gave a large smile hearing that before running out the door. The princess chuckled before turning to Anon. “So then, how are you feeling Anon?”

“As fine as I can be with a banged-up arm,” he replied, looking at his casted limb.

“The nurses tried their best to heal you, but there were complications that came up that forced them to use mundane healing methods over magic.”

“That’s strange, last time I was in ta hospital they used magic. Why did—”

Pausing, Anon noticed something popping up at the side of his bed: it was the thing that looked like Trogdor from back at the base.

“AAAAAAHHH!!!”

“AAAAAAHHH— Hehehehe, I do love yelling! Oh, you’re yelling at me…”

“Discord, leave the patient be,” one of the nurses told the chimera as she continued to look over the machines.

“It’s not like I knew he’d be offended with how I look! Hmmm… Maybe you’d prefer female company?” he asked, snapping his digits. Aaaand now he was a she. The princess frowned at him, something Discord rolled his/her eyes before snapping her/his digits once more, returning to his previous, still horrible to look at form. “Fiiiiine.”

“Discord, what are you doing here?” Princess Celestia asked with a frown.

“I was simply curious about the alien we were coming out here to retrieve and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about!” Getting up close to Anon’s face, Discord’s eyes bulged out in a cartoonish fashion. “I can see why you were upset with him coming here in the first place, princess. He does look somewhat similar to how they looked, though not as hairy nor having such a grand smile that they did.”

Confused at hearing that, Anon looked at the princess who had her face scrunched up, looking peeved at the chimera. “Discooooord…”

“I seem to recall being told about some kind of familiarity of something you disliked,” Anon said.

Looking at him, she let out a sigh, taking a moment to collect herself. “When you first arrived here, there was some… confusion to what exactly you were.”

“Ha! Understatement of the year!”

The princess narrowed her eyes at Discord before continuing, “The descriptions on you that I had read described something that we had to deal with over a thousand years ago called the…” Princess Celestia let out a shiver,” Bleuh Bleuh Bleuh.” Discord giggled hearing that. “I do apologize if I ever came off as antagonistic toward you.”

“The… Bleuh Bleuh Bleuh,” he said to himself. “That does sound familiar. Lyra had been telling me about them and ways to not have you compare them to me.”

Princess Celestia blushed, letting out a couch. “That, of course, is not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to hear what you’ve gone through and to know what Bon Bon brought up to us.”

“Bon Bon?”

“She said you mentioned being attacked with magic in the head somewhere in the forest. But please, start at the beginning when you were first taken. I’d like to take full account of everything that’s happened.”

Giving her a nod, Anon started retelling her nearly everything that he went through, or at least a condensed version of it: from him being at the park to Lyra, to getting, and spending his time in a cell, and of course not forgetting his little event involving Cross Love. Princess Celestia had said they had collected the doctor and would most assuredly talk to him about his involvement in everything.

Discord, for the most part, had been floating around the room, occasionally dropping down to ask something himself or to be a nuisance. Celestia had been paying careful attention to his words, patiently waiting for him to finish. She abruptly stopped him once he started to discuss the cave, looking particularly rattled.

“Please, describe the being that attacked you once more…”

Anon nodded, “It was bipedal just like me, around the same height and build as well, though it could stretch its limbs from what I experienced. The thing was completely covered in pink hair, had a creepy smile, and had black beady eyes.” He shivered, remembering all of that. “And as I stated, it could use magic, even mentioning it was purely made of the stuff.”

Princess Celestia looked paler than before, not liking what he had said. “Anon, what you just described sounds suspiciously like the Bleuh Bleuh Bleuh.”

“But how is that possible?” he asked. “Couldn’t it have been something else? I remember Lyra told me your world has many unknown beings out there, so it may be just something we hadn’t seen before.”

“Oh?” Discord snaked his body close to Anon, snapping his digits. In his hands were a picture frame, showing a creature very close to what he had seen in the cave. “Something like this?”

“…Yeah, something like that. The one I saw was much lankier though.”

The chimera lifted an eyebrow hearing that, looking at the picture. “He must’ve done something strange to change his body like that; they’re not normally thin beings.”

“Wait, so they do have genders?” Anon asked. “I couldn’t tell at all.”

Discord merely shrugged, “They could be male, female… or even both! It’s hard to tell their genders unless—” He chuckled, looking at Anon, then at the princess. “Unless you shave their bodies completely bald! I remember a group of them did that to Celestia once, can’t recall why. It unnerved her for some reason or another at the time.

“See, now that was a group that did some fun chaos around the place, quite the creative lot!” The princess did not like hearing this; Discord ignored her, hugging the picture close to him. “How it makes me reminisce those times. Too bad they went overboard as they did. I will say they kind of resemble you in a way once they’re stripped of hair.”

“That’s not something I rather like hearing,” Anon muttered.

“Is there anything else I can do to fix this picture,” Discord said, now showing a pink beast that looked thinner. “Maybe I’ll hang it up in sunbutt’s room after it’s done.”

“You will do no such thing!”

Anon continued, “There wasn’t much else other than it stated how it liked to question things. Oh, and it had a name it said its siblings called it: Momus.”

“It was a named one?!” Discord exclaimed with giddiness. “That certainly explains how it managed to slip by us all this time!”

“Is there a difference between a named one and one not named?” Anon asked.

The princess decided to answer, “Most of the Bleuh Bleuh Bleuh didn’t have any real intelligence. They simply went across the lands to wreak havoc and madness anywhere they went, to varying degrees. The named ones, however, were different. Somehow they had gained proper intelligence that allowed them to think. In a strange twist, they caused the least amount of problems for me, though it didn’t mean they weren’t causing them.”

“Ah, the memories with those ones,” Discord said with a sigh. “I remember Momus, always wanting to question every little thing, mostly to annoy everyone around him. He specifically loved asking Luna things all the time: How much cheese does she process in a week? Why did everyone veer away from her? Does anyone truly appreciate her nights? Oh, how his questions annoyed us all!”

“Anon,” the princess started, ignoring Discord, “what exactly did Momus say or want with you? Anything can be of great help, possibly stopping whatever he has planned.”

“He mentioned wanting to get back at someone who used him a long time ago and somehow had outdone his siblings in something.” He paused for a moment to remember what had transpired. “Momus mentioned that… that I would be the one to stop whatever it was. He said he had viewed some lines, whatever that meant, and that I was his best bet to doing whatever he wanted. So he… did something to my head that he said would wind up killing him.”

“He… died?” Discord asked. “But… but how?”

“I don’t know. Momus only mentioned using forbidden spells and draining his magical essence to make his plans work, which used up all his magic. I didn’t even know you could run out. He wound up using the last bit of his magic when I was in the cave. He started with whatever he did to my head, and the second part was what he had done to cause some kind of distraction.”

“And for someone made purely of magic…” Celestia left it at that.

Discord stared at Anon for a few seconds before looking back at his picture, turning it left, and then right, staring at it. “Oh. I… I see…” he said, losing some of his energy all of a sudden.

“Are you sure he specifically said he viewed these lines, Anon?” The princess asked. Giving her a nod, she closed her eyes in thought. “I see. It appears that Momus likely used a powerful scrying spell. These lines he mentioned are likely the multiple possibilities that could happen. He must have used whatever spell he did to alter things around and change any instances he wanted. And you’re a part of it all.”

“So that’s it? I’m just stuck with this?” Anon let out a sigh. “I suppose you’ll want to lock me up somewhere. He did say whatever he planned I would be the one to head it all.”

The princess gave him a quizzical look, “Is that what you want?”

“Honestly… no. But what else is there?”

“Anon,” Princess Celestia said with a smile, “we’ll do no such things to you. I have dealt with many things in my past, including many oddities in magic such as these scrying spells. What I’ve learned about those is that no matter what we may try to do, it’s quite difficult to change whatever was predicted without using the same level of scrying spell. Locking you up would do you no good and make everyone around you miserable.”

“Couldn’t you just use whatever spell he did and see what he wanted to do?”

Celestia shook her head, “While I could, it would drain me of my magic for a long time, and even then I wouldn’t truly know of what he would have planned for you. Scrying the lines aren’t just something you do; even Starswirl would be hesitant about using such spells. It can drive one mad. Though, I’m not interested in attempting such a spell. What I am curious about is what his second spell could be.”

“So this scrying wound up killing him,” Anon said, more to himself. “I don’t understand why he died of magic depletion. I thought everything here was made of magic.”

“Not really,” Discord said, still looking at the picture. “Everything here is filled with it to different extents, but the Bleuh Bleuh Bleuh was truly made of pure magic. Magic depletion is a death sentence for them. It’s… something I neglected to plan on when I created them; I simply gave them massive supplies of magic, not giving regenerative powers any thought. I should have been more attentive to that little detail.”

“Regardless of him depleting his core, what currently worries me is who he was after. Could it be he was targeting me or my sister?”

“No,” Discord flatly answered. “If he was, he would simply cause some chaos here or there, and being a named one, that gave him more sensibility and reasoning of things. They were forces of chaos, but they wouldn’t just act out on silly revenge on things like their banishment, especially if it meant their core being wiped out. No, Momus wasn’t the type to hold a grudge over something that he so rightly deserved.” Discord rubbed the face of Momus in the picture.

“So it’s something that even he would act out on, meaning it’s a massive threat to us,” Celestia said with worry.

Discord did not reply, still looking at his picture. The room remained silent as everyone stewed around in their thoughts.

“Where is this cave, Anon?” the princess asked.

“It’s not a cave anymore; it turned into rock last I saw. It’s right outside the night rebel’s base if you need to know.”

“Yes, I should send somepony down there to look at it, just to be sure he’s gone and he didn’t leave behind any nasty surprises.”

Humming, the chimera snapped his digits, the picture disappearing with a pop. “I think I’ll go take a look myself. I’ll speak to you later human.” In a swirl, Discord disappeared into himself with a flash.

“That’s one way to leave,” Anon said before turning to the princess. “Sorry if all this has troubled you.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about; it’s not your fault any of this happened.”

“I suppose,” he mumbled to himself before moving onto other things. “Now, you mentioned something about my head a bit ago. Could you tell me what you all found about it?”

“Ah, yes… that. We didn’t know for sure what we were dealing with until you told me about the cave, but it seems that Momus has done something to your head, rearranging the shapes in there, making it so you can nullify magic.”

“Shapes? Wait, nullify? I don’t know what either means.”

“Our magic is based off units of shapes and lines that we formulate in our heads, though that’s a very basic gist of things. It takes a good while to learn how to properly form it. We take the shapes and lines and make intricate works out of them which we conjure to do what we wish to happen. The more intricate and complex, the more taxing it is, but also more effective. Truly powerful spells require incantations, scriptures, or artifacts to be added, but that’s a more advanced topic.”

“Right…” Anon said, sort of getting what she said but having difficulty with it.

“There’s obviously more to magic than that, but it’s what I can explain to you at the moment. Momus had somehow rearranged the few that were developing in your head, which was forming around who you were as a being, and inserted an innumerable amount of them. It somehow changed who you are as a being when it comes to magic that is, and it’s allowing you to nullify magic entirely. It’s quite a conundrum that’s baffled everyone that’s looked at your head.

“A magic to nullify said magic is, well, contradictory to what we know. There are artifacts and even some spells, but what we’ve seen from you is a completely new branch of magic being formed. So far, all we could determine about it is that you can turn it on and off at your own will if given enough practice. We’re not sure what the boundaries are with what you have, or even what uses it may have other than the most obvious.”

“How do you know I can control this?”

“Magic, even something as bizarre as what you have, is still magic. It’s something you learn early on in magic theory. It is still magical in nature and thus can be controlled, so long as you practice at it.”

“It sure would be nice to turn off magic whenever I want, knowing that people can’t read my mind whenever they want.”

Princess Celestia frowned at him, “Anon, I can assure you that without permission we wouldn’t look into your head. There are laws in place to ensure it won’t happen.”

“That sure didn’t stop Luminesce from attempting that.”

“Did it now,” the princess said with a blank expression, terrifying Anon with how unreadable it was. “It just so happens that he’s in our custody at the moment. That was something he neglected to tell us, which will reflect poorly on him. I shall have to buff our security dealing with him, along with adding charges.”

A knock alerted the two of someone entering. The door opened with a sun guard of Celestia’s saluting the princess. “Princess, I have urgent news from Canterlot.”

“I am currently dealing with something of importance right now. Surely it’s something that can be handled by my standby?”

The guard, looking unsure of himself, walked up to the princess. Moving her head close to her guard, Princess Celestia listened to the whispered words of the guard: the more he said, the more worried she looked.

“This might be connected to Momus,” she said to herself, Anon barely catching it. “Guard, please alert Luna about my absence. She will know what to do after that.”

With a salute, the guard left the room immediately. The princess stood up regally, making her way to the door. “It looks like I must go, for now, Anon. I do hope you get better soon after all that you’ve been through. If you need anything, please have either my sister or me informed so that I may help you to the best of my abilities.”

The princess left the room, leaving him alone to think about everything he had just learned. He leaned back into his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. Hearing a door creak open soon after, Lyra, Bon Bon, Rainbow Dash, Cloud Chaser, and Vinyl walking in.

“Hey Anon,” Cloud Chaser greeted, flying beside the human as the other ponies came in. “How ya doing?”

Anon merely shrugged, “I’m feeling sore, but other than that I’m doing okay. What brings you all here?”

“We just wanted to see how you were doing,” Bon Bon said. “The others are looking around town before we all head back to Ponyville. They were told you needed rest but we just wanted to see you before we did our things.”

“It sucks how that Lumi-turd guy got the drop on you forcing you to stay at the hospital,” Dash said with a shake of her head. “We could’ve had some fun out in town here if you were fine; gosh that really sucks! But I’m certain you gave that jerk the ol’ one-two right back there. Why didn’t you tell us you knew how to kick some awesome butt?!”

Anon was perplexed at what she just said. “…What?”

Dash furrowed her brow before looking at Cloud Chaser. “We overheard some things from everypony and put two and two together. Everyone’s saying how you had an epic showdown with the guy that totally destroyed everything around you!”

“There’s also rumors going around about you taking down some night rebels as well,” Bon Bon said. “We have one from the other base in custody and he seemed terrified just hearing your name.”

“Come oooon,” Dash said, moving closer and nudging his uninjured shoulder. “Tell us about the awesome fight!”

He scratched his head, using his good arm. “I guess some context is needed. Back in college, I took up some boxing lessons as a way to keep in shape. I was never very good, but everyone insisted I keep practicing."

‘I also picked up some wrestling moves, to entertain myself mostly. Watching all those WWE Showdowns and fighting cartoons wasn’t a good idea at the time.’

“I went all out and beat down a few night rebels. As for the day rebel leader, I kind of just threw some chairs at him and ran away. Oh, but I did manage to fight him in one last showdown. Even managed a kinniku buster on him; the guy was the right size for it and everything.”

“What’s that?” Dash said, her eyes sparkling. “That sounds awesome!”

Anon coughed, not wanting to reveal it was from an old cartoon he used to watch and only replicated on mannequins.

“It’s kind of like a suplex, but you lift them above your body and tuck their head beside yours before you slam them downward.”

“That sounds so rad!” Cloud Chaser said with her own sparkling eyes.

“Yeah, but Octavia managed to wind up knocking the guy out, right before I got KO’d by Lyra— no, Lyra, I’m still not upset at you, stop that,” Anon told her, hearing her starting to whine.

“I really am sorry…”

Bon Bon patted Lyra’s shoulder before looking at all the ponies, “From what I recall, the others didn’t get there in time before Anon and I got out, being split up. Discord was the one that trashed the place ultimately. He plowed right through it all before moving onto another spot and repeating his mayhem. He didn’t even see us there.”

“Oh… Soooo I guess we were wrong then,” Cloud Chaser said, rubbing the back of her neck. The others gave her a look, which she rolled her eyes at. “Dash and I may have said some things out in town after what we heard and, well… everybody maybe, kinda, sorta believes you may have beaten up the guy singlehoofedly.”

“As well as beating down the night rebels so badly they pee themselves seeing you,” Dash added.

“Is that why I heard some rumors about Anon taking on the entire rebel group himself?” Bon Bon asked, looking at the two.

“I heard some things about him having ‘funky kung-fu powers’, among other things,” Vinyl added in.

“Just what I needed,” Anon groaned out.

“At least you look cool in the end?” Cloud Chaser said with a forced grin.

Anon simply stared at her before turning to Bon Bon. “Where were you exactly? I went back to the cell we were at to get you and only found a tied-up guard.”

“I always keep something hidden in my coat, that’s one of the reasons I like to wear it so much.”

“But how did you get out of the cell in the first place.”

“I may have tricked the guard and then blinded her…”

“Bonnie, you didn’t,” Lyra said. “I thought you weren’t going to carry that stuff around anymore!”

“Figured it might help out on our trip, and I was right.”

“What exactly are you talking about?” Anon asked, quite curious.

Bon Bon looked back at the closed door to check on it before digging into her coat pocket, pulling out…

“Oh wow! That looks like some high-grade stuff!” Dash said, flying close to her.

“It was hard acquiring it but so worth the costs.”

“Isn’t that like, illegal in several places?” Vinyl said, lifting her goggles to take a look.

“…It’s just sand,” Anon said nonplussed.

“Pocket sand,” Bon Bon corrected, “and the good stuff too! Not some regular school playground sand.”

“You should put that away before anypony gets hurt from the stuff,” Lyra said, eyeing the sand warily.

“Regardless of how Bon Bon got free, I’m just happy this is all over with and we can go home,” Anon said.

“I think the princesses wanted to keep you here for a little while longer for some reason, probably about your head?” Dash said, looking at the things hooked to him. “I hope nopony bonked it too badly.”

“Alright, so I’ll be going back in a few days then.”

“We’d all stay and keep you company, but most of us are probably going to head back since we’re needed back at Ponyville,” Dash said with a grin. “I’ve been missing out on work too often and they’re not happy about it.”

“If you didn’t sleep so often—”

“Shaaaduuuup,” Dash told Cloud Chaser, who snorted at her.

“We should probably let you rest,” Bon Bon said before turning and walking to the door. “Come on girls, let’s go find something to eat before we meet up with Princess Luna in a few hours.”

Dash and Cloud Chaser flew out the door without a word with Vinyl following close by. Bon Bon stared at Lyra who eventually turned, walking away.

“We can catch up on some things when we get back to Ponyville,” Anon told Lyra.

She turned around, staring at Anon before smiling. “Right! I still have to show you around the house!”

Returning the smile, the two exited and closed the door. His smile vanished as he laid against the pillow, once more staring at the ceiling.

‘So, I can nullify magic. That’s kinda interesting, I suppose. The rumors are going to be a pain dealing with, Momus and his plans are going to be annoying, and who knows what else will happen in the future.’

He hummed, rubbing the cast on his shoulder. His thoughts floated back to what had happened only a few short days ago, leading up to his fight with the rebel leader.

‘Maybe I was jumping to conclusions about that cartoon logic. They’re still people and I shouldn’t treat them any differently than I already had been doing. Still, everything that has happened probably could have been dealt with if I had thought about it as a cartoon. Why would that make sense though? Does the magic in their world alter them to such a degree?’

Lyra had explained how magic has a mind of its own, not thinking per se, but as it functions in a manner that still can’t be explained. Everything in this world that lives has a magical shield, like a second skin on it. Magic allows more elasticity to be forced into things, so if someone like Rainbow Dash collides with a tree at full force, she walks off with the barest of injuries. Only in direct combat does this kind of thing fail, and even then they’re still not getting the full brunt of the damage that he’d expect to see.

As a result, he had seen ponies acting almost mindlessly on what they did. So what if you fall down that ravine? So what if you get an anvil dropped on you? It’s not going to kill you.

Does magic behave in that manner forcibly, putting up all the shielding and odd phenomena that forces the world to act in accordance to a scripted animation slot, or do the ponies and other beings act willingly in that manner because magic allows such behaviors to occur due to lacking repercussions?

‘Lyra mentioned that weird dream thing of hers. What if our world was seeing a few other worlds in their dreams? Wouldn’t that mean that magic acts naturally to a cartoon?’

He barely remembered anything from how tropes worked concerning cartoons. Pinkie pulling things out of nowhere: That was… hammerspace. He remembered seeing a pony being flattened in town once, only to pop back up like an accordion. Twilight could also fit into a mad scientist trope, albeit one that is magically inclined and nerdier than what he’d expect.

‘I just need to keep an eye out then, watch and predict what happens so I can counter them. I’m clearly some kind of MacGuffin for this Momus being. Things are about to get even wilder, and I’m smack dab in the center of all this. I refuse to just sit back and not have some semblance of control.’

Anon grumbled, leaning his head back as he stared at the ceiling. “Why does everything have to be so complicated?”

“I know what can cheer you up!” Anon heard that at the foot of his bed. Looking down, he could see Crumble, now wearing a cheerleader outfit. “A snack!”

“PIIIINKIIIIEEEE!!!”

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

“What do you mean everything’s blocked off?!”

“There have been massive storm surges that popped up everywhere, making any travel rather impossible and scaring multiple countries into closing off their ports. They may have just ceased several hours ago, but they want to keep them closed, fearing a magical resurgence.”

Inkwell passed over some of the documents he had prepared, looking tired. “It seems your return back to Canterlot would be full of work, princess,” he said jokingly, something the princess huffed at. “All the sea, air, and magic ports outside our lands have been temporarily blocked until it can be assured that travel through these regions will be safe.”

“Under whose orders are these from?” the princess asked, looking through the papers.

“The griffon kingdom and the minotaur clans are in agreement with pushing this blockade for the time being, though it only appears to be a token showing of force. The hippogriffs are helping with ensuring that all sea travel is returned back to ports, for their safety they claim. And the yaks are completely closed off from everyone, though they are allowing magical ports to leave their lands, not to come in. As for our ports, the merchants are enforcing the closing of these as they do not wish to be seen as instigators to any other country, or to be blamed for anything that occurs.”

Perusing through the documents, Celestia couldn’t help but feel that Momus was responsible. It couldn’t have just been a coincidence. But for what reason?

Stopping on a page, Princess Celestia kept her face clean of any strong emotions. On the inside, she was stricken with shock, rereading the words over once more.

“The passages… they’re open…”

“Princess?”

“Guard, I need you to report to the captain that I want three dozen strong for all air and seaports to keep guard there for the time being. Hopefully, that should appease any beings there until we can assure them it’s safe to travel once more.” She then turned to her assistant, “Have Princess Cadance informed that I need her assistance in bringing crystal ponies as guards for the sea and land ports—” She stopped, sensing something in the air.

The guard does as well, stepping back and charging his horn for any unwelcome surprises. Stepping back herself, Celestia waited for the built-up magic to make itself known in the room.

A flash of blue light popped in front of her, followed by a harmonic array of tinkling that played a soft, yet energetic melody.

Just as quickly as it came, the melodies drifted off, leaving her staring at an extremely bright and colorful scroll. She caught it with her magic before it could drop, examining the intricate art engraved on it.

Unclasping the lock, she unraveled the scroll, hearing more melodic tinkling being played. Reading through it, a smile appeared on her face.

“Inkwell, I need you to first call the council together. Something just came up that needs discussion.”

“Princess, the council is, well… they’re already together and are currently waiting to talk to you.”

Rolling the scroll back up and clasping it shut, she turned to her assistant with a raised eyebrow. “And why wasn’t I informed of this?”

“As soon as things happened, they knew it would take some time for you to come back and read things over. They’ve been collecting all the information they can and having it brought to them as a way to discuss what is occurring. At least, until you were available to meet with them.”

Princess Celestia took a moment to think about what she was told. “Very well. You two have your orders.”

The guard saluted her before exiting the room. Inkwell simply bowed, following after.

Standing there, she gathered her document papers along with the ornamented scroll before teleporting outside the council chambers in a flash. The two guards outside the chamber didn’t budge from her sudden appearance, already accustomed to it happening.

They powered their horns, opening the doors for her to enter. Stepping inside, the doors slowly closed behind. The princess could see the entire council standing patiently by their chairs, waiting for her. They all gave a bow. Returning it, the council took to their chairs just as the princess sat in her seat.

“As we are all aware, there have been several disturbances around the world,” the princess started. “Many of which have stopped the travels of beings from entering and departing from our lands.”

“And quite suddenly,” the councilpony Mackerel said. “I’d have to assume that it must have been something rather large to stop all travel as it has.”

“Please tell me this can be resolved, and fast,” Sky High asked. “I’ve got Cloudsdale up in a roar with beings not being permitted to travel into griffon lands. I fear this may have hurt trades to our weather factory for their wares as well.”

A snort could be heard, “I doubt this has hurt as much as the minotaur caravans that are expected to come over in two weeks!” Merlin spat out. “They’re already considering forgoing the entire trip!”

“I thought the minotaurs were supposed to be made of sturdier minds than to allow such a thing to stop them,” the representative from Manehatten said.

Sky High narrowed his eyes at Merlin, “As it just so happens, a very important visitor that you all are already aware of, from the griffons, was visiting in Cloudsdale and is currently stuck there, worried out of her mind.”

Merlin clicked his tongue. “I suppose that may be a tad troublesome.”

Celestia spoke up, “Rest assured, the problem has already calmed down and seems to be resolved.”

“Will there be anything that can harm any of the towns near the seaports,” the representative from Baltimare asked.

Princess Celestia shook her head, “I’ve already sent out guards to every sea and airport to ease any concerns for the merchants and travelers coming in and out of our lands.”

The mare sighed, seeming to relax after hearing that. Merlin though frowned. “I noticed you disregarded any mention of my magical ports.”

“I will be needing your unicorns to take positions at the locations in these papers in a few days to search for any lingering magic’s in the air, along with providing a guard for the travelers and merchants as well,” Celestia answered, levitating over a certain pack of documents. “We’ll have your ports back up soon enough but this is of extreme importance that must be addressed immediately.”

“The porters aren’t going to like this one bit,” Merlin grumbled, taking the papers before looking through them.

“Princess, is there anything you can tell us about why all this happened?” the representative from the Crystal Kingdom asked.

“I cannot divulge the full details due to the information being dangerous in the wrong hooves, but I can say that the rebels will no longer be a problem.”

“That is great news to hear,” Mackerel said with a sigh. “Those darn ponies mucked up some of the shipments that came in a few months back, destroying all our tea and throwing it in the harbor!”

The representative of Baltimare chuckled hearing that. “I remember that particular incident. Our mayor tried saving the day by announcing the harbor drinkable. He forgot that the ocean was salty,”

The princess, along with the council, laughed remembering that. “At least it wasn’t refined salt or that might have been a really bad day,” Celestia said with a small smile.

Merlin slammed the table, making the council members jump. He looked shocked, looking at the papers before turning to Celestia. “P-Princess! This is saying that the old passageways are now cleared! How?!”

“It’s related to the storms that blockaded off the old passageways,” she answered. “Somehow, they’ve managed to also take the obstructions away, clearing them once more.”

“But those passages were blocked off by some unknown magical force for… I don’t even know how long ago it was. Surely a few hundred years, minimum! And now, they’re just… gone?”

“Are we talking about those dangerous passages that haven’t been safe for anyone outside a few daring individuals?” Sky High asked.

“I remember those Saddle Arabians being able to get through the one by them, but it took a great deal of care to manage any proper travel,” the Las Pegasus representative said. “So how do we know for certain that they’ll stay gone for good?”

“We don’t know,” Princess Celestia answered. “That is why I need Merlin’s unicorns to check out the passageways for any lingering magic that may still be around and to ensure that they are gone.” She levitated the ornamented scroll to the middle of the table where it could be seen. “We’re already getting calls from the blocked off kingdoms, wishing to reconnect to us for trade and travels once more.”

Merlin levitated the scroll over, examining it with the utmost care before unclasping it open.

“That scroll appears to be made from collected corral only available in the Ghibli Oceans,” Mackerel said with awe, staring at the scroll before turning to Celestia. “You’re not implying that the Kingdom of Ponyo has returned to us, are you? And you say they want to reconnect our trade routes?”

“That and much more,” she answered with a smile. “The storms may have caused much confusion, for some, difficulties,” she said, looking at Sky High, “but they are a blessing in disguise, reopening the passageways. I believe we can try and reform old alliances and treaties with nations and beings we haven’t been in contact with many a year.”

“A small problem with that, Princess Celestia,” a pony said, gaining the attention of everyone. It was the representative from Van Hoover: Horton Von Whoosie. “We still need representatives of our own to go to said locations, and even current ones to get do their job. While that job title hasn’t been around for a very long time, officially, I remember a certain someone that currently holds that job’s title.”

“Please tell me you’re joking,” William Wright, the representative of Ponyville spoke up. “That mare does not suit a proper ambassador that we can ensure won’t muck up the job!”

“She’s rough around the corners, but she’s trained in knowledge pertaining to the different species and cultures outside of our lands.”

“Lyra Heartstrings is a suitable candidate due to her knowledge, she’s just… lacking in proper etiquette,” Celestia added, keeping a calm demeanor.

“When we voted her in for that role, none of us thought she’d have to partake in any of its responsibilities,” Sky High said. “Can we not choose somepony else? Like your student, Twilight Sparkle?”

Princess Celestia shook her head. “She knows very little outside our own culture, being solely focused on magical studies and what I have personally taught her.”

“But she has a good judgment making skills and can easily take the time to learn for this position,” Sky High added. “All you have to do is give her a book on different cultures and away she goes!”

She shook her head once more,” I cannot have Twilight enter that position; she’s already being groomed for something else.”

“What of our current ambassador for the griffons, Haze Friction? Could he not perform this role?”

“He is currently talking to the griffons at the moment about matters concerning the weather factory, and that’s not something we can pull that stallion away from,” William Wright said, looking at Sky High.

“W-What about the ambassador for the minotaurs then?”

“You know we have to have him moving from clan to clan to do his job; replacing him would be quite difficult,” Wright said.

“I agree with Sky High,” Mackerel said, “I’m not sure Lyra is a good fit for this job. But, if we cannot have someone else work in her stead, at least get her somepony to work with that can support her, working as joint kommunelegatusionists.” The others nodded their heads with murmurs of agreement.

“There’s that mare that lives with Lyra,” Sky High said. “I believe her name was Sweetie Drops?”

“She goes by Bon Bon,” Celestia corrected.

“Doesn’t Prince Blueblood have her under his hoof?” Merlin said. “Even if she’s close to Lyra Heartstrings, why would he give up one of his top personnel?”

“I believe you’ll find her a bit more… freeing as of late,” Princess Celestia spoke. “She should have no problems with working beside her friend.”

“Our reports wrote of her working as Lyra’s assistant multiple times in the past. She’d easily fit the bill with what we need for Lyra. Her ties to the mayor in Van Hoover will surely be a great boon to us.”

“I’m certain we can convince them to go,” Merlin said, still looking through the scroll. “What of that alien? He would also be a good addition to the group.”

“I recall him being something called an ‘ecologist’, dealing with the land and how to make things better,” Horton said, rubbing his chin. “On top of him being an alien aligned with us… Yes, having him along can certainly help.”

“He’s also becoming a very well-known being that we’re associated with; many refer to him in a hero-like status regarding those rebels,” Wright added. “Some of those rumors I’ve heard are quite fascinating! That alone would be reason enough to have him along.”

The rest of the group started adding in their thoughts to the discussion as Princess Celestia sat there, taking it all in. She would eventually make her final decision when everything died down, but for now, she could find no reason not to have the beings in question as joint ambassadors, being quite happy with their choices.

As she sat there in her seat, her thoughts slowly drifted to Momus, thinking about what his plans may be.

‘This is likely all connected, knowing the unblocking of the passages had to have been his work. Maybe Momus meant for Anon to leave eventually to these other places. It might be a good idea to have someone tagging along with them and help keep an eye on him, just to be safe. It’s too bad I can’t add Twilight; she certainly would be a good addition to this.’

Thinking on Twilight, she mentally sighed, remembering that pony’s previous actions concerning the human. She had some regrets punishing her as she did.

‘Twilight must have learned her lesson by now surely. I could give her a simple test, just to be sure, before I give her the book like I planned.’

Giving herself a small nod, she went back to listening to the group talking about the joint ventures and the unblocked passageways on top of the different beings they would soon be dealing with once more.

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

It had been a few hours since Anon had talked to everyone in the room. After the nurse heard him and removed the despicable cookie, he didn’t have much else to do other than rest.

The nurse returned soon and explained a few things to him, such as how he had been in the room for a few days. It worried him he was out of it for so long until the nurse explained it was due to the herbs they used.

Princess Luna had also come by, telling him about some things that certainly did not please him in the least. They’re going to have some ponies trying to help him learn how to control his ability. It was mostly so that he could know how to turn it off and control the output on what he could do; it would be bad if everything magical around him just suddenly stopped working. It was easy to understand why they’d want that under control, with a world filled to the brim in magical works.

Hearing a knock at the door, he lifted his head and saw a nurse walking in along with Princess Luna and one of her guards.

“Did something come up?” Anon asked as the nurse lifted his bed, getting him into a sitting position.

“We’re going to get you to the chariots and have you flown out of here and back to Ponyville where you can rest there.”

“I thought that I was supposed to stay here for a little longer.”

“Plans changed; they want to start immediately on helping you with your problems along with other things that need addressing.”

The nurse walked over, placing some clothes down along with a pair of shoes before walking to his bandaged arm and removing it from its holdings. She placed a sling by the bed, showing Anon how to put it on.

“I hope nothing is going on that’s pushing me to go back to Ponyville so soon,” Anon said, grabbing a shirt with his good arm. He groaned, realizing Rarity made it and that it had quite a few gems on it. “Why are there gaudy gems on this?”

“That’s some thank you for the clothes,” he heard coming from the door. Pulling the shirt over his head and carefully down his body, he could see Rarity staring at him with a pout. “I figured you’d like to try some of the smaller gems I managed to gather for your clothing.”

“I prefer wearing things that can’t potentially poke me in the chest or other body parts,” he said as the nurse helped him put the shirt on over the cast before also helping with the sling.

“The shirt and clothing are prototypes for something I was working on with the minotaurs,” Rarity said, before letting out a sigh. “It’s hard marketing to those beings, so I figured maybe if some of them saw it on you…”

“I get where this is going,” Anon said, grabbing his pants and spotting the gems lined down the legs.

‘She wants something to market to those beings. Kind of like selling toys to kids. They just need some kind of ‘action-figure’ feature to make them work.’

“Why don’t you just make some tight-fitting clothing for them that’s hard to rip? From what I hear of minotaurs, they like to show off their bodies, so having clothing that they have to forcibly rip off could appeal to some of them.”

Rarity blinked, mulling the idea around. “That sounds like an interesting idea. I could add in a few interwoven bind and stretch threads and it might just take off.”

“So not to sound rude,” Anon said, still examining the pants for anything that could hurt him, “but why are you here? Shouldn’t you be gallivanting off with the rest of Sparky Spark and the Nutty Bunch?”

“Don’t like my company nowadays? How’s that for friendship…” Rarity harrumphed before walking a little way into the room. “Everypony is going back with you to Ponyville. I came here to give you some clothes and to see you before you left.”

“You’re not coming along?”

Rarity turned her head away, scrunching her nose. “I, um… I’ve got things I need to do here before I leave…”

“Oookay then,” he said, grabbing his underwear and pants.

‘Her words didn’t sound ominous, so I doubt it’s going to affect me. Probably some side gag I’ll see later on.’

“Can I have some privacy now?”

“What for, Anon?” the princess asked. Anon nearly forgot she was there, what with her simply sitting there and staring at him putting his shirt on.

“Reasons…”

“And what reasons are those?” Luna asked.

The nurse walked in, whispering something to the princess’s ear. She raised an eyebrow, to where Rarity also walked up to her and whispered something.

Luna looked at him with a blush, “I forgot all about that, hahaha…. I’ll just go.”

He sighed as the others left in giggles, closing the door behind them.

Getting his clothes on, carefully working around his arm being in a cast, he felt better with clothing on. It may have gems on it, but they looked identical to all the other clothes he had been wearing. Every single day he had been there in pony land.

‘Oh. That’s another trope, isn’t it? Wearing the same thing over and over. Well, ain’t that a kicker.’

Walking out, he could see Rarity had already left, the princess and her guard still there along with the nurse, who checked over him one last time before going into the room he vacated.

Princess Luna coughed out, “We should get going. I will bring you to the chariots that will be taking you all back to Ponyville before resuming my current duties here.”

“You’re also not coming back?” he asked as they walked down the hall together.

She shook her head, “I still have much that needs to be done down here with my guards, such as combing through the bases and outposts for anything that may still be there.”

“Ah, okay. And why can’t I take the train I was told about instead of the chariot?”

The two of them walked out of the building, shielding their eyes from the bright sun. It felt like early afternoon to Anon. “You don’t want to take a train with the condition your arm is in, especially one full of ponies.”

Anon was confused, “I don’t see myself being reckless with my arm cast as it is,” he said, walking down the street with the princess.

“You’ve never been on a train full of ponies, have you?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“Then trust me when I say it’s not something you should be doing with that cast on.”

He simply shrugged at that. Following Luna, they eventually arrived at an open field filled with chariots and ponies standing around them.

“That’s a lot of chariots just to get a few ponies here.”

“They transported the guards that will be watching over the rebel prisoners, along with additional guards for the town.”

“Ah,” Anon said. “And with the chariots now empty and needing to be returned anyways, transporting us with them takes care of things pretty well.”

“Exactly.”

“ANON!”

Turning where he heard his name screamed, he could see Lyra running up to him with Bon Bon trailing behind. Upon arriving, she stopped directly in front of him before jumping up to his stomach, hugging him. Or at least trying to, right before the princess caught her in a spell, stopping her midair.

Luna frowned at the mare, which Lyra sheepishly smiled before letting out a squeak, being placed on the ground. “You do realize you could have injured his arm even more than it is?”

“But hugs can help the healing process!”

“Be as it may, I doubt magical hugs will be working on him in the near future.”

“Wait, hugs can heal here?”

Neither party said anything to that. Princess Luna dropped Lyra down, walking over to a chariot, motioning Anon to come over. “We need to be sure this will work in the first place, so please get in and hold on.”

“Anon’s coming too!” Lyra said before squealing. “This is so great. We all get to go home at the same time!”

“Come on, Lyra,” Bon Bon said, walking beside her, “we need to get into our chariots.”

Nodding, the two went away with a skip. Anon chuckled, shaking his head at them. Returning to the princess, he did as he was told getting into the carriage and holding his seat. Two pegasus ponies in front put on their harnesses and stood at attention, ready for liftoff.

“First up in the air will be Anon’s chariot,” Princess Luna spoke out loud to everyone. “Hopefully, his magic nullification will not affect the pegasi carrying his load. Everypony else will follow him afterward in a v-shaped formation! You all already know what needs to be done after arriving at Ponyville. Now, raise it out!”

The ponies attached to his chariot looked unsure of themselves hearing that as they started to flap their wings. Running in a straight line, they took off into the air with Anon holding on for dear life.

Resisting the urge to scream, he saw that the ponies were, in fact, capable of lifting him into the air with no problems. It still made him queasy being so high in the air and without anything to properly secure him to the chariot, such as a seatbelt.

‘Why aren’t those on these chariots yet? I already made up the schematics and everything.’

It took what felt like an hour of excruciating riding to get to Ponyville. They landed right in the park where Anon was first abducted, making things slightly ironic for him.

‘Or was that coincidental? I blame Alanis for confusing an entire generation on that word.’

Upon landing to a full stop, Anon wobbled out of the carriage, falling to the ground on his side. Luckily he didn’t fall on his injured arm.

“Would you like us to deliver you to the hospital?” a guard asked.

“No… right here is good,” Anon answered back just as the chariots started landing around him.

He could see a pony jump out of their chariot just as it landed, flying over to him. “Dude, are you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying above him.

“Yeah, just don’t feel very comfortable riding those things.”

Dash snickered, “You should get used to it if y—” The pegasus poked him in the side, which immediately shut her up. Her wings went flaccid as she dropped to the ground, landing beside him in a squeak.

“…Heh.”

The other ponies walked up to them, staring at Dash in amusement. “We already told you what might happen if you touched him, Dash,” Twilight said flatly.

“Y-Yeah, yeah,” she said, flapping her wings a few times. “I’m going to head home now and get a hot shower before getting some sleep.”

“I, um, also need to go now and check up on my animals,” Fluttershy said as Dash flew off. “We’ll see you when you’re feeling better, Anon.”

“Come on, Anon,” Bon Bon said, at first going to help lift him when remembering what had just happened to Dash. “We should get back home.”

“Awww, I wanted to set up a party for our return!” Pinkie said, bouncing beside her.

“Maybe some other time, but right now I’m pretty certain we can all use some rest after all we’ve been through.”

“Before everyone goes,” Anon said, sitting up on the ground, “I’d just like to say thanks for everything.”

“You’re a friend of ours and we help our friend’s in need,” Twilight said, gaining nods from the rest of the ponies.

“Well, thanks anyway.” Anon looked around, noticing something amiss. “Where’s Vinyl and Octavia?”

“They stayed back for some reason,” Cloud Chaser said, flying by Anon. “Not sure exactly why though.”

“Maybe Octavia is getting Vinyl to purchase her a new cello before they leave?” Flitter mentioned.

“Maybe, they were at the marketplace,” Cloud Chaser said. “Well, time to go for us two. You take care Anon, we’ll see you soon.” And just like that, the two flew off, headed back to their home.

The other ponies said their goodbyes as Anon, Lyra, and Bon Bon walked back to their home in Ponyville.

“This was some crazy adventure,” Bon Bon said, shivering from the cold wind passing by. “I’m glad we’re finally back just before the snow was scheduled to fall.”

“That’s right, the pegasi around here make the snow fall don’t they?” Anon asked.

“Yep, and it’s going to be deep when it hits,” Lyra answered.

“The town’s pretty dead right now,” Anon mentioned, seeing not many of the stalls were open. The ones that were seemed surprised seeing him back, giving him a friendly wave before immediately closing their stalls and leaving.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were waiting on word for when you got back,” Lyra said, looking at an empty stall. “Many of the ponies here were worried and upset when they found out you were taken.”

“Really?”

“Yep! I won’t be shocked to hear a party is being planned for tomorrow on your return home!”

It didn’t take long for the three of them to reach their newly made home. Anon was surprised by how strikingly different it looked in comparison to before.

“I never got to show you around the place!’ Lyra said, jumping in front of him. “I can’t wait to show you your new room!”

Anon chuckled, scratching his chin. “I hope there’s something to shave this hair off me as well.”

“You could always go to the barbershop for that, Anon,” Bon Bon said, walking toward the door.

“I could try and cut it for him!”

“Your magic wouldn’t work, Lyra. And besides, you’d likely mess it up somehow.”

“Would not!”

Watching the two talking back and forth, it made Anon feel relieved to have something that felt relatively normal in this world, which was saying a lot.

Hopefully, he could get some peace for a little while until something new popped up that pulled him back into more of this crazy world. He knew the thing with Momus wasn’t over. The event back with the rebels didn’t feel very climactic for him.

Whoever Momus had his sights on, Anon knew that being would come out with some fanfare in the future. Anon had to make plans for the upcoming future and prepare for what was in store for him.

~End Chapter Twenty~






Chapter Twenty-One – Silly Pony Life


It had been a month since he’d returned to Ponyville. One full month of healing, recuperating, and watching the snow pile up. Apart from the ponies that the princess sent over for his training on his ‘nullification’ powers, he tried not to have too many interactions with them until he could get things under control. Having an entire population with magic gathered inside of them made his odd powers a dangerous hazard to be around.

Not that it stopped anyone from trying to visit him or get him out of the house when they could. It certainly helped with livening up his dull training. Having trainers around him constantly was getting on his nerves, no matter how much the princess was paying him to cooperate.

Currently sitting at the kitchen table, eating some leftover food from the day before, he watched as the trainer for the day scribbled down notes. With a hum to herself, she passed over another bowl, cut from fine gems.

“Okay, like last time but this time try to work it out as slow as you can manage. I’ll be working a spell to analyze what is occurring, focusing on the bowl once again.”

“Sure, alright,” Anon said, licking off his fingers.

With his finger pointed out, he tapped the crystal bowl, focusing on his inner power. He was taught to imagine it in a visual form, finding the idea of putting it behind a door the easiest for him. The door slowly creaked open; the crystal bowl started to drain of its previous luster. His trainer flinched, finding the spell flickering from its horn, struggling to keep it active.

Only a few seconds passed before the unicorn sighed, extinguishing the light. “Okay, you can stop. I just don’t know how spells can’t seem to work around your null presence even when it’s not aimed at you.”

“Are we nearly done here?” Anon asked, finger still touching the bowl. “I kind of had plans to leave the house today. Want to see what’s going on in town, get out, stretch my legs.”

“Yes, with this at least.” His finger retracted, the crystal bowl starting to regain its previous shine, albeit at a slow pace. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over that. Oh, I should probably ask about your second power and if there are any new developments there.”

Anon groaned, face-palming. “That’s not a power. That’s me observing you ponies.”

“And yet, you’re observing something about our lives that we can’t seem to identify. It’s concerning that you’re able to predict outcomes or simply know certain amounts of information that you, by all accounts, shouldn’t know.”

His ‘cartoon’ logic idea had, in turn, come back to bite him. Keeping his eyes peeled, he could see odd things that just didn’t make sense. From ponies leaving items in strange places, to the ways they’d act that seemed to defy logic. And instead of keeping his nose out of things, like a smart person, he intervened whenever he could. He stopped a few Goldberg machines early on, talked a few ponies out of making mistakes, and pointed things out that, when shown in the light, seemed to dissolve its wackiness and made things resolve peacefully.

If he had simply kept his mouth shut when his trainers asked why he was involved in so much the few times he was allowed to leave the house, when previously he stayed out of things, then the ponies would have likely not put a magically binding contract on themselves from ever revealing such knowledge. On top of, Princess Luna and Celestia wouldn’t have made that bit of his ‘powers’ a Triple S as they called it, or Super Serious Secret, that no one could know about.

Thus, he now had top individuals in the country believing he was some kind of magical non-magical human-exclusive seer that could pierce the veil of their reality. He tried to explain numerous times that, no, he was simply making guesses and predictions on what he’d expect a cartoon to do. None of that seemed to matter to them and had, in fact, the complete opposite reaction, only solidifying their views on him.

“It’s not something to get worried about.”

“Ah, ah! That’s where you’re wrong! What if someone else out there could learn of how you’re able to predict all of this or see what you can? Then we’d have a crisis on our hoofs!”

“Oh no, whatever will you all do if someone sees through all the silly shenanigans you’re pulling off.”

“I am being serious here, Mr. Anon. Ponies or other beings could use these powers for evil. For example, what of the incident involving those CMC children? Someone could have turned those bullies to true evil if it was anyone but you interfering.”

Anon wished he could have forgotten that little incident that kept coming back to haunt him. When he got his cast removed a party was involved because of course, they needed one for that. After talking to the cutie mark crusaders, he saw the little snots that were Diamond Tiara and her crony Silver Spoon talking to them, pretty much bullying, and yet not a single adult seemed to take notice.

The whole thing reminded him, as did many things as of late, of cartoons he’d watch. How he hated seeing kids being bullied around, and how infuriating it was that no adults seemed to step in at all. So, of course, he stepped in, settling the problem as best he could that didn’t involve kicking the little bullies across the party scene.

“Look, if any of the adults at the party had stepped in to help them then I wouldn’t have done anything. Seriously, their reasoning of ‘Oh I was enjoying the party so much I didn’t even notice these children being picked on’ doesn’t sit right with me. And come on, clearly, this was a setup for their stupid talent show they were having the following week. How many of those do they even need? They have one like every month.”

“Our talents are an important part of our lives, Mr. Anon.”

“Hey, at least I didn’t punt them. That’s something, right?”

She rolled her eyes, “The little things, I suppose.” He had a talking to about punting ponies around the place, the ones that needed it. Apparently, they didn’t like that. “The reports I read showed that you not only dispatched the two individuals bullying the CMC’s but also guided the two afterward into… paranormal studies.”

“If I didn’t do anything then it’d go back to the status quo when I wasn’t around. By the way, I didn’t guide them to that, that was all them.”

Talking to the scary alien after the party on his way home at night didn’t help them in the least. The petty little threats they made, which wouldn’t affect him in the slightest, only made him laugh.

Opting to try and change their attitudes, he steered them toward veiled dangers and spooks that many other ponies had been afraid of, as he had noticed in past encounters. He allowed their imaginations to fill in what those could be. Who knew it’d fill their minds with ghosts and vampires along with other secrets they were sure were out there, that Anon was a part of in their minds.

“Yeah, that’ll veer them to a horror setting. Maybe I should have thought that one through, I don’t want to deal with wendigos or specters any time soon. Still, with how things have gone here, I doubt it’ll be gory, mostly just some good spooks. It could be fun.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry, speaking to myself.”

“No, step back, what’s this about wendigos?”

“It’s nothing. That kind of thing won’t be for a long while, not until they’re well trained to take it on.”

“Can you please not involve yourself with those two? We’ve already got enough problems to deal with. Having two children with a building obsession with paranormal activities, while having rich and influential parents, is not a fun combination to deal with.”

“Why does it sound like you’re personally involved with that?”

“I am! Sort of. I mean, those two as of late keep paying ponies off to get into our files, which in turn brought out our division to the area to investigate why there’s been a lot of paranormal activities stirring up, which THEN, in turn, shows those two being responsible, and by omission, me!” She let out a wail of frustration. “I shouldn’t have gotten involved when I first saw them try to summon something from Tartarus for hidden secrets. Because I’m already here for your training, the division now sends me out to deal with this. I keep having to chase them down so they don’t get into any trouble. The fact that you’re instigating this makes this whole ordeal even worse!”

Anon shrugged with a chuckle. “Can't promise to stop. I kind of set myself up as the mentor to their little adventures. I can’t just back out of all that now.” The unicorn looked like she was about to cry. Anon merely laughed. “So we’re done? I’d like to do stuff when everyone’s still out and about.”

The unicorn huffed, placing her papers in her side bag. “This will be our last session for some time. The princess is recalling the other trainers in the area and I have to deal with those little nuisances; it seems they got something planned in the following week and I can’t allow them to run off by themselves.”

“So what about the plans the princess has involving me and the other two?” The unicorn froze, eyes widening. “Oh come on, it was so obvious. I overheard Lyra saying she had no further duties for the time being and Bon Bon’s entire stock was bought up by some random person, clearing out well over a month for her to kill. Mind sharing what she has in stock for us three?”

“I, uh… I am not at any liberty to discuss… confidential matters that… GOODBYE.” She popped out of the house, a quick teleport taking her away.

“Hmph. Rude.”

Finishing up his meal, Anon grabbed a few essentials along with his coat, heading out the door. He was immediately met with white everywhere. It had snowed two weeks back, all the snow quite literally dropped from the sky in a blanket, covering the entire town within moments of its arrival. It was quite a sight to see.

‘At least the roads are cleared, along with a path from the door.’

Putting his hands inside his coat pockets, he started walking down the road toward the town.

The sight of all the snow was putting him in a good mood: he always did like winter. And in this world, it looked exactly like how Hollywood interpreted it in their movies. Anon could see a flurry of activity throughout the place, with the ponies running around, throwing snowballs at one another, or tobogganing down the hills.

There were ponies building snowponies or snow forts, giggling at the silly constructions they came up with. Anon could even spot plenty of vendors about, selling their wares such as hot drinks or snow-related snacks. He hoped to cross the hotdog vendor to ask him about his order, and to pick up some on the way.

A chuckle escaped his lips, spotting Rainbow Dash with a cloud in the sky, shaking it vigorously up above Scootaloo with snowballs somehow coming down from the cloud, hitting the small pegasus. Scootaloo ran away from the cackling mare, trying to make it over a hill and attempt some form of retaliation with her snowballs.

Rainbow Dash freaked out when a massive snowball came at her, barely dodging it. It seemed Scootaloo was acting as bait to get her near the catapult Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were manning, somehow moving it forward with what Anon would assume was magically powered. They then proceeded to chase the rainbow-maned mare with cheers.

“Anon!”

Hearing his name, he turned around and saw a very large minotaur running toward him through the snow. He slid up to him, kicking snow right at Anon’s body. Wiping the snow off his chest, he deadpanned at the minotaur, who gave him a sheepish look.

“Sorry ‘bout that, boss.”

“Is there something I can help you with, Bolder? I’m pretty certain you’ve been fully trained in what to do so you don’t need to keep coming to me for questions.”

During the time his arm was in a cast, the spa sisters had been out one employee. It had hurt their business quite a bit. Anon felt bad, knowing they couldn’t just hire and train someone like him again. As luck would have it, a minotaur had come across Ponyville, originally challenging him to some odd macho competition or whatnot.

The rumors running around about him had quite a few minotaurs looking up to him, for some reason, and a few challenged him to whatever they could come up with. Bolder challenged him to throw stuff. Anon had a good laugh, activating his null and grabbing the minotaur who was helpless, chucking him into the air. Guy only landed a few feet, but seeing as he couldn’t grab Anon, his null powers forcing weakness into the guy, he had won that competition.

After talking him down from that, along with Lyra threatening to magic him like crazy, he explained that he was taking lessons from another minotaur close by named Iron Will. The rumors surrounding Anon were running wild, and Iron Will wanted in on that, telling Bolder to challenge him in some way to make a name through it; Iron Will thought that would give him more business.

Bolder just seemed like someone that wanted to find something he could be good at. Anon to put two and two together, thinking he could take his place at the spa. It wasn’t difficult to convince the spa ponies, though they weren’t impressed with his hairy hands in comparison to Anon’s smooth, oily digits.

They had created strange gloves that mimicked his skin. It was… revolting when they showed it to him, and it wasn’t perfect, but it allowed the minotaur to give massages, Anon style.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he looked over to Bolder. “Head in the clouds, boss?”

“Yeah, precipitation in exposition it seems. So what did you need, Bolder?”

“I just wanted to give you the final product on the gloves that were made,” he said, handing over the skin gloves that made his stomach churn. “They made some recent revisions and while it can’t replicate the oils out of your skin or how the digits work, it’s much closer to how your skin feels.”

“Oooh… thanks…”

“No problem, boss!” Bolder said with a thumbs up and a smile. “They’re thinking of marketing it to other minotaurs, using me as their model for it!”

“That’s great to hear,” Anon murmured, uncertain how to feel about that. “Is there anything else?”

“Nope, that about covers things for now,” he said, right before dodging a massive snowball coming from a fight being formed. “I should get going; I need to have some of the griffon mead ordered soon. This place is just too dry for my throat!”

“Just make sure you save some for me when it comes in. I didn’t even get some the last time you imported it.”

“Of course! We’ll drink the night away and have a blast!”

“So long as you don’t invite me on your ventures like the last time,” Anon said with a chuckle. “I don’t know how you wound up trying to stick your dick in that manticore.”

“Th-That’s not my fault, it was that darn pink pony’s fault! I knew I shouldn’t have invited her with my drinking.”

Saying their goodbyes, Anon walked away from the snowball fight that was happening around him, making it to the stalls near the middle of the town. The place seemed as lively as ever, with them all bundled up for the cold weather. There were some stands dedicated to game stalls involving the snow or other odd things about their culture, along with some music playing in the background.

It was a festive he got seeing it. Looking around, Anon had to hold back a sigh, seeing Pinkie eagerly waving a hoof at him, calling him over to her stall.

Walking over, he spotted large cups and a steaming kettle. “Hey, Anon! It sure has been a while since anypony’s seen you out and about!”

“I’ve been cooped up in the house learning how to control that stupid magic nullification ability of mine,” Anon told her. “I doubt anyone around here really wanted to deal with the mishaps from it and the whole not being able to use magic very well around me.”

“Not everypony uses magic!”

“Doesn’t matter, it’d still be a hindrance to your day-to-day activity around the place.”

“But you missed out on all the fun and adventures when you were locked up in that house. Think of all that could have been if you were with us!”

“I think I’ve already had enough of that to last me a long time. Besides, it didn’t stop anyone from visiting the place.”

“True, true,” she said, nodding her head. “The few times you’ve been out have been pretty funny too! Like that one time, you saved like, twelve people in town! There was Tapioca Lovelies nearly having that piano dropped on her head, and you just pushed her out from under it right on time from that doom! Or when that runaway cart came by and you directed everypony away in such an odd pattern. It’s almost like you can see the future!”

“Better be careful with such accusations like that; you might find me butting in and ruining some future surprises involving you.”

“Ooh, yeah, wouldn’t want that. So to get back on to the main script, since you’re here, would you like to purchase some of my super-duper, totally awesome hot cocoa? Only five bits!”

“So long as you add in extra awesomeness into it,” he replied, placing the bits down.

Pinkie giggled before messing with her kettle and mixing things around, placing it all into a cup, along with a tall stack of whip cream and powdered cinnamon on top.

“Would you like a cookie as well?” she asked as Anon grabbed the cup. He gave her an expressionless stare. “Soooo, no?”

“Definitely not,” he answered, taking a sip from the drink. The warmth that went down his throat and into his gut was a welcome feeling.

“It’s just a plain sugar cookie, see?” she said, showing a plate of star-shaped cookies.

“…Not talking antics from the stars?” he asked, taking one and looking it over.

“Nope! Crumb was the only one made like that and she’s off doing something else at the moment.”

“Wait, she’s not around here is she? I’d rather no interactions with her for some time longer, if at all possible.”

Pinkie waved a hoof at him. “Nah, she’s too preoccupied with the fillies and colts over there,” she said, pointing behind him.

Looking, he saw the cookie pony now adorned in a cookie scarf, little cookie booties, and a cookie beanie. Crumb was currently bouncing on top of a xylophone, entertaining the young ponies that crowded around her little stand.

“I think I should leave before she notices me,” Anon said, walking away in the opposite direction of Crumb.

“ENJOY YOUR DRINK!” Pinkie yelled out, making him wince, doubling his speed.

Walking around the stalls, he was offered more items to purchase, from icicle-popsicles to the classic snow cones. Anon thought it would be good business to recreate the coconut treat, Snowballs, for Bon Bon to sell. She would likely be happy selling such things, after the month-long break.

“Hey, Anon!” Looking down, right off to the side was Vinyl giving him a smirk, or it appeared to be one since the bottom half of her face was covered by a scarf. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you out and about.” She paused, examining his head. “Wow, you look different without all that hair on you.”

“I’m glad it’s gone, the stuff was bothersome.”

“I dunno, the hair looked good on you, giving you a wild look. Anyways, I was just heading home; wanna accompany me back and catch up?”

“Yeah, why not,” Anon answered, not having much to do and wanting a break from the cold.

“So is there anything on your mind at the moment?”

“Not really, I was just thinking about some treats that were sold back home. Thought I could remake them with Bon Bon’s help and have them sold off.”

Vinyl turned her head at him, “Sounds like an interesting idea if you go through with it, though you’ll make some ponies upset with that decision.”

Anon gave her a questioning stare. “Why would they be upset over treats of all things?” he asked, taking a sip from his drink.

“There’s a betting pool going around on what you’ll recreate next from your world. I believe Lemon Hearts and Rose have their bet on you making treats.”

“Are you a part of this pool?” Anon asked while dodging a very large rolling snowball, followed by Silver Spoon running after it.

“I decided not to get into any future pools since you already brought your pod out. I don’t have much more interest in anything but that at the moment.”

“Why are you telling me this? It seems like something that would need to be kept hidden to be effective.”

Meeting her to the door of the house, she looked around, not spotting anyone close by. “Some of the ponies in the pool are getting desperate with you coming up with something. I heard that some of them might try something about that to get you to make things.”

Opening the door, she invited him inside the warm house before motioning him to sit on the couch. Doing so, Anon sipped his drink as she went off into the kitchen for refreshments.

“So you just wanted to warn me about the others?” he called out loud enough to reach Vinyl’s ears. “It’s a little useless unless I have names to watch out for.”

“That’s just it,” she called back. “I don’t know who’s in it, could be everypony here in Ponyville. Giving you a heads up was the least I could do.”

Vinyl came back out with a tray of snacks and two mugs along with a steaming kettle. She served out some simple tea for Anon, which he gladly accepted as his previous drink had just emptied.

“So how have you been?” Vinyl asked as she removed her glasses and her scarf from her mouth. “Being stuck in that house had to have driven you nuts.”

“Kind of used to it, in a sense. At least I wasn’t stuck to a single room like when I first arrived. It was the whole learning how to control my null powers that made things miserable.”

“I remember when you managed to pull that off; those unicorns were whooping and hollering about being successful,” she said with a smirk. “I bet you were happy to get your arm healed by magic soon after. So can you do any nifty tricks with it, like teleport or whatnot?”

“My power revolves around me neutralizing magic, so I doubt I can do anything useful.” Anon took a sip of tea before continuing. “It’d be absurd if I could teleport, and I doubt I’ll ever be able to do much of anything specialized..”

“Okay, so nothing super radical with your newfound powers,” Vinyl said, taking a rather large gulp of her tea, “yet. So how have you and the other two lovebirds been?”

Pausing from his drink, he set the cup down, remembering how the two had been since coming back with him. “Bon Bon and Lyra haven’t changed at all as far as I can tell. Though as always something is going on around those two.”

“Nothing major’s changed?” she asked, finishing up her cup before filling it once more. “They’re officially hooked up so surely something’s different around there.”

Anon shrugged, “Those two are more awkward around one another when it comes to the lovey-dovey. Bon Bon seems happier, and Lyra is her normal peppy self, though she tries to be a romantic with Bon Bon now and then.”

“I know of one thing that would especially make her romantic,” Vinyl said, wiggling her eyebrows at Anon.

“I’ve already said I’m not interested in that kind of thing, Vinyl.”

“Sure, sure,” she said, waving a hoof. He then noticed her giving him a more serious stare. “How have you been, personally?”

“I’m doing good. Other than the whole weird skill thing and being stuck inside a house most of the time, I can’t complain. I do wish I had something to do, like a job. The bits from the princess is great and all, but being cooped up so often is making me antsy.”

“That’s not what I meant, Anon.”

He looked confused, “Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean.”

“How exactly are you doing on the inside? Like, emotionally.” Anon quirked an eyebrow at her. She placed her cup down. “A lot of other ponies see it, or the ones that have been around you long enough to notice. You’ve gotten very good at hiding it recently; almost everypony just thought it was some alien thing.”

“Ah man, am I being therapy’d right now? I forgot that’s kind of what you do.”

“Uh… what?”

“No, nothing. Forget I said anything.” He tapped his knees, humming. “Okay. What would I be hiding? I’m not scheming or planning anything, especially with how cold everything is. Though I could try and build an ice fort somewhere and take over a little section for my people. I bet I could get Lyra and Bon Bon to join in on that.”

Vinyl didn’t grab onto his joking. “Anon, you don’t have to hide your emotions. We’re extremely understanding and won’t make fun of you. I just feel like I need to ask to make sure, to see if you’re doing fine.” She tried to find the right words to say. “Anon, how are you dealing with being here in our world and away from yours?”

Lyra and Bon Bon had tried asking him about that but he kept sidestepping the topic. ‘They must have asked her to try and talk to me if she ever got the chance.’ Clasping his hands together, he bent over his seat, giving it some thought.

“I won’t lie, it’s had its ups and downs. I miss being around people I recognize, interacting with things I’m used to. Everything back in my life is kind of… just gone. My career, my goals, the few people I had close to me. Though that’s mostly referring to my mom more than anything. We were pretty close.”

He chuckled, “She’s probably wondering why I’d do something so stupid, jumping on a missile. ‘Oh that Anon, always so dramatic. He should have known he could have defused it in some manner if he just took a second to look!’ I know she’d say something like that, always joking about things like that. Heh…”

A cough, clearing his throat. “But I think I’ve gotten over it plenty well. I’m done crying about things. If… If I can’t get home, I should make the best out of this situation. I’ve already got plans on how to turn my career into something I can use here; I’ve been hearing about black rock usage and other things that could be prevented to help your world and future generations. By the way, I call black rock, coal. Some info for you. But yeah, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“So you claim,” she said, before rubbing her chin. “Thought it was strange how you acted before has changed since that trip.”

“Vinyl, I’ve already explained that weird guy from the forest had some kind of spell on me, muting me on my emotions. This ‘me’ is the real me, or it’s the me that isn’t held back.”

“So now that you’re back to ‘normal’, you now go around, drop-kicking ponies around the place?”

“Okay those ponies deserved it and you know that. Seriously, asking me those lewd things or getting specist like that. Not cool. Of course, I was going to defend myself, the jackasses.”

A laugh escaped Vinyl. “I remember seeing you do that in the marketplace. Scared the crap out of everyone for a while; they all thought you would go on a pony-kicking rampage.”

Anon blinked. “They did? How’d I miss that?”

“Bon Bon took you away from the place before you could find out. Seriously, a lot of ponies kind of got in your personal space or did something really stupid toward you for the first few months you were here, and with you not doing anything about it for the longest time, they just thought you were fine with it. Finding out differently, well let’s just say it scared quite a few about getting kicked themselves.”

“I wouldn’t even be kicking them around if it wasn’t called for. But everyone should know I wasn’t just going to come at them for some petty revenge. I’ve already forgiven them.”

“Still, when you live in a society where any weird fella from the past can crop up for some form of revenge or other baddie works, you kind of expect it in some fashion.”

“Kind of sad.”

“It sure is.”

Anon swirled the tea around in his cup, taking a sip before placing it back down. “This is my life now, isn’t it? Living among all these different people and species, expecting some odd adventure that reminds me of a weekly monster-of-the-week fest, full of magic and some lesson to learn around every corner.”

“Don’t forget living with two awesome mares that are willing to reciprocate the loving back if you ever want it.”

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that too.”

“So while we wait for whatever this next ‘arch’ you’ve told me about comes, whatever that is, why not just have fun with life and do what you want here?”

“What I want?”

“Sure? You’ve always done what others wanted or gone with them. What exactly does Anon want himself?”

“I’ve… never really thought about it. All I’ve ever wanted was to have a fulfilling career before finding some woman and settling down. But now, living here? I kind of still want to do that. As I mentioned, coal usage could be regulated, some practices like deforestation should be considered, and possible pollutants you haven’t come across could be warned about to prepare you all. I don’t know… I think I just want to help everyone in that regard.”

Vinyl looked confused, “Okay, I don’t know what some of that means but all the power to you. Is that all? Surely there’s something you’ve wanted to do.”

“I’m fine with going along with everyone’s trips. I’m a foreigner after all; what would I do if I was given the freedom to do whatever I wanted? Visit places? Meet the locals? I’m already in a strange enough place as it is, trying to lead myself through that hazard is a headache in itself. I’d rather have someone there leading the charge until I can get my footing, which won’t be for a while longer.”

‘The null powers sure did give me a proper step in that direction, finally having some level of control once again.’

“If the opportunity did present itself, I’d certainly try my own thing. But right now? I just want to chill out with my friend Vinyl and maybe listen to some music with you.”

She smiled, “Now that I can get down with! What you got in mind?”

“What have you checked on there so far?”

“I’ve gone through most of the electronic bands, which by the way, that Pendulum band? Sick! I was in awe at what they produced.”

“You should check out Knife Party. It’s the same people, just a different direction. But if that’s all you listened to… Yeah, I kind of feel like something melodic right now. Let me show you the musical world that is, Blackfield.”

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

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there with Vinyl. Going through the few albums he had on it was relaxing for him. The two talked about his time in Equestria, Anon slowly opening up on some issues or letting things out.

Vinyl had some interesting reactions to the music. She got teary-eyed on the self-titled song, and The Hole In Me got her choked up. Surprisingly, she wanted to hear them a few times over, wanting to ‘capture the mood’ as she said.

“You can let go of me now.”

“S-Sorry. Just needed a hug after that music,” she said, wiping an eye behind her goggles. “That stuff was really strong. I didn’t even know you could make music that emotional.”

“You silly ponies are too emotional,” he said as Vinyl moved off of him.

“You silly humans need to open up more.”

A snort came out of him hearing that. He wasn’t sure how to be more open, but he’d attempt it in some way.

“Before you leave, is there anything you do want to talk about right now? Anything you miss or just want to let out?”

A smile crept across his face, “I really, REALLY miss meat. Proper meat that isn’t from an animal that can talk back to me.”

Vinyl chuckled, “The griffons can send in meat if you want that imported. I remember reading Lyra’s reports on you, and I think the calydonian over in Gryphonia will be perfect for you. It’s kind of like pigs, but they’re used for food.”

“I remember hearing about them, but it’s expensive to import. The last time I’ve had proper meat was at the castle with the princesses. I would kill for some of that again.”

“Th-They served you meat?”

“It wasn’t real, just some fake meat made by magic. But it was very tasty.”

“So those rumors are true then! I wonder what the princess is doing making fake meat up there.”

Before Anon could say anything, a rather harsh coughing came from the side. They turned to see Octavia, standing out of the hall, looking sick.

“Where’d you go?” Octavia asked, looking relieved to see Vinyl there. “I thought you disappeared on me again.”

“I told you I went to the doctor. She said she’d be over later this evening for you. Go lie back down.”

“Don’t—” She let out a loud sneeze and sniffled. “Don’t g-go disappearing on my, Vinyl.”

“Would never dream of such a thing.”

Octavia stared at the unicorn for a few seconds before turning around and heading to her room.

Anon turned to Vinyl, looking confused. “What was that about?”

“It’s a long story I doubt you’d believe. Besides, she’s just sick and is likely hallucinating something or another.”

There was something odd going on between those two, but he decided not to push into it, not wanting the drama of it all.

“I should probably leave,” Anon said. “The other two will be back at the house soon. Besides, I wouldn’t want to get sick.”

“Can you even catch a cold from us ponies or anyone in this world?”

“I wouldn’t know and would rather not find out.”

“I should probably comfort Octavia anyways, she could use the company. Just don’t forget what we talked about.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Anon mumbled, standing up and making his way to the door.

Standing outside, he could see it hadn’t gotten any darker. It must be sometime in the late afternoon; he did wake up quite early when he went out for the day.

Walking back to the house, his thoughts drifted back to what Vinyl said. While he didn’t like opening up, who did, after all, Anon had to admit that he felt much lighter, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It still hurt to think about home. He hadn’t realized how much he missed things, like his mom and some other people, on top of his entire life.

For some odd reason, Anon was starting to realize that his past life was starting to look odd like there was something off. He wasn’t clear what that was about. Shaking his head, he put those thoughts aside for the time being. Keeping things clear and optimistic was a better view to keep his sights on.

Right before he could continue, Anon had to stop, spotting something very odd even for him in pony land.

“Rarity?” he asked, uncertain if it was her.

She turned to him, looking surprised. “Anon! Darling, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you! How have you been?”

“…Fine,” he answered, walking up to her. “Sooo… what have you been up to?”

“It’s the norm for me, with my designing and such. I’ve had a lot of orders on scarfs as of recent, of course, along with some warmer wears. Booties are of course back in season, and you have no idea the difficulties I had obtaining proper enchanted wool to line those with.”

“Okay then, alright. And… what about that?”

“About what?”

Anon pointed at the rock Rarity was currently perched on top of. “The rock you’re sitting on.”

A light laugh could be heard, with Rarity shaking up and down. “Do-ho-ho-ho! Aren’t you going to introduce me to your fabulous friend?”

His eyes widened at what appeared to be a talking rock Rarity was sitting on. The unicorn coughed to herself. “Anon, this is Benny Alicia Grimmoid.”

“Everyone just calls me Sapient for some reason, but I prefer Sappy my tall friend,” the rock said.

Uncertain about how to react, he turned his direction to Rarity, disbelief clear on his face. “So, Rarity. You’re friends with a talking rock.”

“Yes, yes I am.”

“How in the blazes did that happen?”

“She met me out in the forest as she was going out to save a friend of hers,” the rock said cheerfully. “How valiant she was! And from the description I was given, I do believe that friend of hers was you!”

“Ah, I see…”

“Yes, well, she came back afterward and we had a nice, delightful conversation with one another. One thing led to another, and now here I am with her on a great adventure of discovery and wonderment!”

“So Rarity brought back a talking rock with her from that forest I was in.”

“I personally prefer it if you see me as a large boulder over a simple rock,” Sappy said with a weird, sultriness, making him feel nauseous and wanting to gag. “Why, I see myself as a boulder-sized kimberlite. I hide all my best adamantinos on the inside, do-ho-ho-ho-ho!”

“R-Right. Well, I really should get going—”

“As should we!” Sappy spoke up. “We must go find my brother; that dastardly draconequus brought him out here and I’ve been ever so worried about him! Poor fella, he’s quite shy and most likely to not speak up no matter how much you try to open up a conversation. I worry about him.”

“I hope you have a good day, Anon,” Rarity said, “but we really should get going.”

“Yes! Let us be off to find Tomathan!” Sappy said.

Right before his eyes, the rock started moving slowly forward, guiding Rarity through the snow as it started to pick up speed.

“I don’t even know what that was. Is that a reference from something I should know, or perhaps something here in the past? I don’t get it…”

Anon wasn’t sure how he was supposed to react to what just happened, so he decided to head straight home and meet the other two to see what they were doing.

Getting home, he saw Lyra and Bon Bon in the kitchen area, enjoying some fruit while talking to one another. Lyra saw him and gasped, “Anon! We’ve been waiting for you! Come over and take a seat!”

Taking off his jacket, Anon hung it up before seating himself. Lyra looked giddy, about to blow up from excitement while Bon Bon looked happy with a large smile. Looking at the table, Anon could see an array of papers strewn about it.

“What’s all this about?”

Lyra patted the table with her hooves excitedly. “Princess Celestia’s giving me a paid vacation!” She let out a squeal after saying so.

“I also got all the candy that I had for this month all sold off,” Bon Bon added in, “so I have no obligations for a while!”

“It’s good to hear that from both of you,” Anon said, keeping a straight face. “Why is the princess giving you a paid vacation?”

“I dunno? Should it matter? PAID! VACATION! EEEEEEEHHH!!!”

“Being cooped up in a house as you had would drive any stallion— ehr, I mean man, mad.”

Lyra clapped her hooves, still giddy. “Soooo, Bon Bon and I were talking and we were planning on going somewhere, just the three of us.”

“You’ve got someplace picked out for us to go?”

“That’s where we wanted you for this,” Bon Bon said, shuffling some papers toward him. “We had a lot of different ideas on where to go, but we didn’t think it was right to not have you in this decision.”

“This is a huge list of different places and ideas that we came up with. Take a look and see if anything interests you and we’ll go there!”

“Are you two sure about this? I might choose someplace that may not be what you two want.”

“Think of this more as a way for us to let you have more autonomy when it comes to decision making.”

“Besides, all these places are awesome! We’ll stand by whatever you decide.”

Looking at the papers, Anon picked one up, seeing the griffon kingdom on it. It listed a count of places to go to and what they could do there, along with stops on the way should they choose.

‘If I recall, there’s been some hints about something big happening there. A few characters leaving some ominous warnings about the place when I was around, and that’s not including those ambassadors that came by two months back.’

Anon, in his mind, was looking at a list of possible locations that would pick up a new adventure, another storyline arch to progress in the world.

There was a paper on the minotaur lands dealing with their various clans. Another talked on the crystal kingdom and some ‘adventure spelunking’ in the region for special gems, with hidden artifacts hinted at. A few new ports had opened up in various lands, and one for directly in the ocean to some weird fish kingdom. Another couple of papers had different places like the Yak lands or other Equestrian cities, but they didn’t have the same ‘excitement’ as others did, clearly trying to downplay their cities.

‘Clearly, it’s trying to perk my interest in some of these places. So how do I go about making this as hard as I can for it trying to reel me back in while still being able to enjoy myself.’

He went over what he knew and had written down, the small clues and foreshadowing that he’d overheard. There was one that he remembered being interested in but hadn’t had a chance to ask or figure out how to get them to volunteer the information.

“How’s about this?” Anon pushed a small paper forward, something that seemed intentionally set aside from everything else. “This sounds interesting.”

Lyra looked at it, frowning. “Van Hoover? Why there?”

Bon Bon froze up hearing the town. “Y-Yeah, there’s a lot of other places we could check out. Like Las Pegasus! Lots of fun games there and plenty of celebrities on stage. Or what about Saddle Arabia,? I hear it’s got great food and we could check out the minotaur clans afterward.”

“I kind of like the idea of Van Hoover,” Anon said, rubbing his chin as he looked up. “It’s one of the oldest cities in Equestria and plenty of old fashioned attractions, so it has a lot of cultural value. The place also has quite a few ports, being a center of griffon meats which I am very interested in.”

Anon scooted closer to Bon Bon, “There’s also your parents living there. I am quite interested in meeting them.”

“Why would you want to meet my parents? They’re not that interesting.”

He had, by complete chance, overheard her talking to some random pony that stood outside her window, whispering to her. It was odd, so of course, he eavesdropped on the whole thing. It was about her parents being in a particularly highly privileged area and her having to take over in the future, something about an inheritance. Anon wanted to nip this in the bud as soon as he could, lest it festers, and become a bigger problem than he’d likely be involved in at a future date.

“I beg to differ. After all, they brought up such a great person like you. And besides, it gives us a place we know in town and can come back to after a long day of sightseeing.”

“I kind of… haven’t told them about me and Lyra yet.”

“Oh, we are SO going to tell your mom all about me,” Lyra interjected with a large smile. “I want to go now!”

“You just want to rile up my mom.”

“Well, duh.”

“So, it’s settled!” Anon gathered all the papers to put away for them. “I’m certain this will be a fun trip for all of us.”

“Yeah, fun…”

“We should get packed as soon as we can; we might be able to leave today for the last train heading out.” Lyra clapped her hooves. “This is great, now Bon Bon can show her parents both me and our future partner!” Bon Bon gave Lyra a look, making her nervously laugh. “Eeeh-heh-heh-heh-heh…”

Anon stared at the two for a few seconds as they scrunched their faces at him.

“Let’s all have a fun, safe trip to Van Hoover.”

“An exciting, super-wonderous trip!”

“Yeah… fun.”


~End Chapter Twenty-One~









Chapter Twenty-Two – Meet The Relatives


“Relax, we’re nearly there.” Lyra patted Bon Bon’s side, trying to calm her nerves. “Why don’t we go over some fun activities that we can do while we’re in Van Hoover?”

“S-Sorry. It’s hard to focus. The closer we get the more nervous I feel.”

“Your parents can’t be that oppressive, can they?” Anon asked.

“No, mom and dad are great people. Dad’s pretty chill about life in general, and my mom is always there for me, though she can get a bit… thorny at times.”

“She’s more than a bit unbearable if you ask me.”

Bon Bon glared at Lyra. “Don’t you start.”

“I don’t see the problem. Is it because I’m an alien? Or that Lyra is with you now?”

“You’d be nothing more than an oddity to them.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Bon Bon shrugged, “They deal with so many things every week so having me bring home an interstellar visitor wouldn’t surprise them. And no, they wouldn’t get worked up over Lyra, though mom will cause a scene with her.”

“She might get physical. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out should she try to maul me.”

“Lyra, stop it.”

“Why are you so on edge then if you think things will be fine? Is there something else going on in town that I don’t know about?”

For a few moments, Bon Bon tried to speak, only coming out in sputters and uneven pauses. Rubbing her face with her hooves, she dug into her bag, pulling out two small paper sheets the size of a mint.

“I’m not allowed to say due to certain restrictions I’m under, but if I bind you two then I am free to say what I want.

Anon held a piece of the paper, seeing an odd plastic-looking sheet on the top that was peelable.

“I don’t understand what this is, and the word ‘bind’ has so many implications I’m not comfortable with.”

“It’s a standalone magical binding contract that ensures you won’t say anything about the topic being mind-projected from its originator, that being me. It’s connected to my signature so it’ll work for at least ten minutes after ingestion.”

“Uh-huh. Will this even work on me, what with my null power?”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”

Anon peeled the sticker back, “So if I’m understanding this, you, for some inexplicable reason, have some kind of magical contract that prevents you from speaking out secrets. And this little thing helps circumvent that?”

“Kind of,” Lyra spoke out, peeling hers back. “These are secondaries to the primary, where taking these allows the primary and secondaries to speak to one another. Saying anything after taking this will alert the primary. The primary saying anything outside of her group will alert the controller. Though on examination, I can see these are an older version that still uses the ‘pony’ tag inside its runes. Major flaw when you’re dealing with other species. Seriously, did you get this thing three hundred years ago or something? Heh, and here I thought only nobles used these things.

Bon Bon scrunched up her nose, looking aside. Anon saw this, frowning.

‘Ah, crap. I’m about to be dealt with a twist concerning her right now.’ Anon looked at his paper. ‘I triggered this event early didn’t I? Should have gone to some other town.’

“Funnily enough, Princess Celestia has me under a few of these. Got a nice collection from embarrassing secrets like- Oh, and it activated. Thank goodness mine buzzes me before I say anything so the princess isn’t alerted all the time. I bet Twilight has a few dozen herself.” She placed the sticker on her tongue, swirling it around before looking disgusted. “Bleh! Limes? Why limes?! Ugh.” Lyra smacked her tongue around, clearing the taste. “Okay, I’m ready to hear this awesome thing. Anon, hurry up and eat yours.”

Placing the sticker on his tongue, Anon tasted something akin to a key lime pie. A tingling sensation could be felt as if he had stuck his tongue to a battery and held it there.

“That was slightly unpleasant. Okay, so what have you been hiding from us?”

Bon Bon chuckled nervously, rubbing her shoulder. “Lyra already knows this, but my parents are kind of big deals at Van Hoover. They own a merchant company that buys and sells things to a lot of the businesses in the area from outside our lands. My dad is also the mayor of the town, so he’s got a lot of responsibilities concerning Van Hoover.”

“Ownership of a major company and having power over a town is a dangerous thing to behold. Your father isn’t abusing things is he?”

“No, no! He’s fantastic! Dad is the kind of guy to lend a helping hoof when you need one. There have even been times he’s taken a hit to his company if it would affect Van Hoover.”

Lyra nodded her head, “That guy is cool. He’d never use his powers if it meant hurting someone in the process.”

“Then, your mom－”

“Is all about showboating the town in Equestria.” A sigh escaped Bon Bon. “It can get tiring at times. She loves to shove in everyone’s faces how well Van Hoover is doing compared to everyone else. Weekly banquets, a monthly food stipend that is freely given from taxes, and free transportation are just a few things she has managed to make work under her budgets. My parents love showcasing how prosperous everyone is. Everyone practically treats them like royalty.”

“I can bearly stand it when I’m here with Bonnie.”

“Really Anon it’s－” Bon Bon turned and glared at Lyra, who squeaked back a smile.

“So why are we doing all this?”

Bon Bon went back to fidgeting. “I’m kind of… technically the heir to their company.”

“Yes, everyone sees her as a kind of princess in that town,” Lyra said with a nod.

The candy mare groaned, “I’m not interested in leading their company. I keep pushing them to have my younger sister do it but they keep insisting I should be the one to do it. So I may have found a way to get out of being able to inherit it.”

Lyra gasped, tapping her hooves on her seat. “I get to finally hear how you did it! So what was it? Did you secretly disown yourself somehow? Is it juicy blackmail against your parents?!”

Bon Bon’s ears drooped down. “I… went into service with Prince Blueblood as part of his spy network.”

Silence filled the room. Anon wasn’t sure what that exactly meant, but from Lyra’s slack-jawed response, it must have been something big.

“WHAT?! Prince Blueblood?! That jerky noble that uses all his bits on parties and photo shoots?”

“That’s an image he’s presenting to the public. Though he can still be a bit snobby, I’ll admit.”

“I need some explanation about what all this means,” Anon said, “on top of how this gets you out of your role as an heir.”

Lyra was the one to answer, “Anyone under the employment from royalty is allowed exemptions from family, clan, or inheritance laws should they wish or it is needed. It’s a very old law that I don’t think anyone remembers or even uses.”

“Thank goodness I have a friend that just so happens to have books on old laws like that?” Bon Bon smiled at Lyra.

“But why Prince Blueblood?”

“It was completely by chance that happened. I had helped with an incident over in Baltimare when I was still in my first year of college.”

“You’re not talking about that cloudy sea serpent incident are you?”

“The very same. I managed to keep its attention while they bottled it back up. The agency, S.M.I.L.E., talked to me afterward and we made a deal. I stick with the agency as a full agent and they, in turn, keep my parents from forcing me from inheriting our family business. Work wasn’t bad either. I got to use my cover as a candy maker and went around spying on different groups or solving problems behind the scenes. I kind of liked it.”

A long-winded sigh escaped her. “After Anon got foalnapped I gathered all the intel that we could and left to retrieve him. Going outside of their control as I did, that revoked my status to now being a free agent. I’m still a part of the agency, but I’ve lost a lot of privileges on top of being able to use those royalty laws.”

“To wrap things up,” Anon started, “you are an agent that works for royalty, while also being from a background that comes from an influential family that is treated like royalty.”

“Yes. And you have no idea how good it feels to get that off my chest.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Anon didn’t like how this all sounded. This made her importance skyrocket. “You could have just not told us and things likely wouldn’t have happened or mattered.”

“My mom would have said something. I don’t know how, but she has ties in just about everywhere, including S.M.I.L.E., and likely knows already about my downgraded status. She’s been against this from the whole start and would have gloated about finally coming back into the family. Also, bringing you two into the fold allows me a few perks like not having to hide so many secrets.”

Lyra hummed, “So all this time, whenever you went out to make candy or those long trips to collect ingredients…”

“That was me getting updates and being sent out on missions. Though I still made candy and treats to sell, just collected from places I went to typically.”

“Revelations now out in the open, is this going to affect our time in Van Hoover?” Anon asked.

“No, it shouldn’t. S.M.I.L.E. is still dealing with the rebel’s mess they left behind along with a few outlying monsters in certain towns. Van Hoover hasn’t been affected by any of that so we should be good to go.”

“Oh! Winter Wrap-Up is tomorrow.” Lyra clapped her hooves, already moving on to another topic. “I like doing that here, it’s so over the top. We might be able to find a part for you to play in.”

“What exactly is Winter Wrap-Up?” he asked. “I only have a bit of information on it.”

“Oh, right. You don’t need those in your world,” Lyra said. “It’s where we put our winter away for another year. It takes all the ponies to get everything ready for it, and I thought maybe you’d like to try it out with us.”

Anon was confused, “Shouldn’t winter last for at least another two months for you all? We’ve only had it for one.”

“Princess Celestia needs the snow to go away earlier than usual, for some reason,” Bon Bon said. “I think I heard something about opened passages from a few acquaintances. This also means we’ll have some more rainy days during the summer to balance things out, so be ready for that.”

“Must be nice to turn the weather off whenever you like,” Anon said. “I have no problem helping with things but I’m not sure what I could help with.”

“Not to worry!” Lyra said, pumping a hoof in the air. “We’ll find something you can help with. And if anything, you can join us in whatever we do.”

Anon was genuinely curious as to how winter was wrapped up in this world. Do they just shovel the snow away or are there some odd procedures for it?

A jerk in the train could be felt, an announcement declaring from behind the door they were nearing the station.

“Fantastic! We can head off this train finally.”

Anon stood up, stretching his back. “I need to walk around a bit myself.” He flared his null power towered his tongue, feeling the binding dissipating. “Feels cramped in here.”

Bon Bon went cross-eyed for a few seconds before shaking her head. “And that answers if your null powers would affect a binding contract. I’ll have to inform the higher-ups on that one. And yeah, sorry we couldn’t get a larger train to Van Hoover,” Bon Bon said, now preoccupied with checking her pack. “It’s not exactly built with anything larger than a griffon in mind.”

“I’ll talk to some figures back at Ponyville about this, make some compartments human friendly,” Lyra said, holding up her itinerary. “We need to check out that sandwich shop over by the piers. They have a lot of minotaur imported meat and yak cheese. Hmm. Cheese. So good.”

“I’ll start heading out then before you make me too hungry, stretch my legs a bit. Meet you two outside.”

Walking outside the cabin he was in, he started down the hall with his luggage in hand. A door could be heard slammed open, Lyra’s head popped out looking worried. “Anon! Get back in here!”

He turned around, confused. “What’s wrong—”

Then… it happened. He wasn’t prepared for the train to lurch around, nearly making him fall. He had to hold on to the sidewall to keep his balance. His suitcase dropped out of his hand, with Anon staring straight ahead in a stupor at the sight in front of him.

Ponies. Ponies everywhere. From the rooms on either side of him to the train cart in the back, they all started coming out in droves. And they all let out a massive roar, a call of their arrival.

“SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

It was a mass of squealing ponies, tumbling like crazy, rolling around and over one another, heading in his direction. It was as if he was witnessing a sea of ponies, and it was barreling straight at him.

Still in shock, he had no chance as he was swept up with the smiling ponies, squealing with glee as they tumbled toward the front of the train. His screams couldn’t be heard over the ponies. They sped down the halls, taking him along for the ride, gathering more and more of them; it almost appeared like there was an endless stream of them.

It eventually wound up with them all rushing out of the train’s front entrance in one massive pile. The pony’s let out squeaks and squeals, with barely a word being said. All Anon could do was lay there in shock at what just took place.

‘Did that seriously just happen?’

Trying to get out of the mound of ponies, he spotted one of them that looked suspiciously like Applejack, who turned to him with a cherubic smile. “Apples!”

“Hey there bud,” he heard. Turning around to the voice, Anon could see a minotaur covered in some sort of garb that hid his body and head. He laughed at the sight of Anon. “You need some help?”

“If you could,” he said, giving him a hand.

Grabbing it, he pulled with all his might, getting Anon out with a few tugs. He chuckled, looking at the ponies, then back to him. “You don’t seem like you were expecting that.”

“Why would I?” he answered, straightening out his clothing.

“Most beings around here know not to get on the pony trains because of this, and when they do, they know to stay out of the way until the pony stream passes by. This is the first time I’ve been to these lands and I know this.”

“Just another thing I need to learn about, great.”

Anon looked at the minotaur, noting that he had been hinted at for quite a while about them. Bolder left hints left and right during his parlor training, and the recent reports Lyra had from their clans only showcased how much narrative progress there would be if he interacted with them. Going by that, this individual had to be important in some manner.

“You wouldn’t happen to have some affiliations with the clans, would you?”

The minotaur seemed shocked to hear that before narrowing his eyes. “Now why would you ask such a question?”

He waved an arm at the minotaurs’ body. “Your clothing is quite rich in colors, and the craftsmanship is superb. If this is your first time here, I doubt you bought any of that here in town. And from a friend of mine back in Ponyville had mentioned about your wares, clothing is not something your people are particularly good at. It must have cost quite a bit to get one from your lands to make something for your travels.”

The minotaur continued to stare at Anon before a grin spread on his face. “Ha! I told Hera I should have gone as a traveler.” He grabbed his cloak, staring at it. “I bet others saw right through this as well. Yeah, I come from some of the clans back home. I’m out on an expedition to see what’s going on in Equestria. Most of the clans have sequestered themselves for quite a long time, and with the passages back open, they want to try and see the state of lands and work out where to go from there.”

‘And there’s the mentioning of passages once again. I don’t know which is worst, the idea of going to the minotaur lands or these passages.’

The minotaur lands consisted of mostly deserts and mountains past the Bad Lands and the Forbidden Jungle. And the passages consisted of unknown lands that were sequestered off until recently, obviously hinted at Momus’ doing, and was full of unknown beings cut off for some reason long ago.

‘No need to be rude, on the off chance I have to go there. This guy is a key character for a future conflict.”

“Name’s Anon,” he said, sticking out his arm. “Human from another world.”

The minotaur let out a hum, “Kamos,” he said, shaking the limb. “I just figured you were some new species looking around. So you’re that alien everyone’s been talking about. It’s nice to meet you,” he said.

Kamos noticed something behind Anon which made him grimace. Turning around, Anon could see two other minotaurs in similar garbs down the street looking peeved based on their body language.

“What a bother. While I’d love to know more about these rumors surrounding you, I need to get going. It’s nice to meet you; I hope great things come for you in the future!”

He then bolted down the street toward the other minotaurs, leaving Anon standing there by himself beside a pile of squeaking ponies.

Some of the ponies working for the train finally came out, holding large poles while trying to pry away at the ponies in the pile, getting them loose and back up on their hooves. Looking at the train, he could see some of the ponies coming out looking exhausted, along with some griffons that looked disheveled.

Lyra and Bon Bon walked up to him with his suitcase, looking like they ran through a marathon.

“Thanks,” he said, grabbing his case.

“I’m sorry,” Lyra said,” I should’ve remembered to warn you about that.”

“It’s hard to hold back on the stream,” Bon Bon said, still trying to catch her breath as she looked at the pony pile behind Anon.

“The stream?” he questioned.

“That’s what everypony calls what just happened,” Bon Bon answered. “No one knows why it happens, but trains just make us do… that, when we gather in large numbers.”

“…I see.”

‘It’s as if this world doesn’t know if it wants to be slapstick cartoon or some weird story-based serial.’

“We should start heading to my parent’s house before it gets dark; they’re probably waiting on us to arrive any moment now.”

“I hope your dad set up some awesome food to eat!” Lyra said. “I’m really hungry and I don’t feel like going out to eat, though it is an option away from your mom. Hmm…”

Along the way to Bon Bon’s parent’s place, the three of them took in the tall buildings that made up the scenery of Van Hoover. Many of the shops had beings advertising outside of them, trying to get passerby’s to come in, while some beings had stands selling their wares. While most were ponies, he could see a few griffons and minotaurs, selling and purchasing things like fish.

The entire place was made of bricks, giving it an antiquated look. The snow-covered the entire city, with the streets lined up with light posts to help brighten the paths. Van Hoover had a charming appeal to it, almost like one of those Christmas specials he’d seen on television. Lyra and Bon Bon certainly seemed to enjoy the walk, talking to a vendor they passed or any odd person they recognized.

Every time they stopped for any reason, others around them gawked at Anon, whispering things around. Anon could hear some of them bringing up those rumors he heard from back in Ponyville. He ignored their whispers, moving on as if he’d never heard them. He did hear some about something happening in the Crystal Kingdom, hinting at the rebels.

This was accompanied by plenty of individuals walking up to Bon Bon, talking to her, or asking for some kind of photo with her or even an autograph. He saw her looking flustered, simply going with the flow as they slowly made their way to her house.

It took some time, but he eventually made it to a large mansion, possibly the largest public home he’d seen of any pony yet, barring the princesses. Walking up the stairs, Anon rang the doorbell with the other two standing on either side of him patiently. A minute went by before the door opened with a unicorn in a maids outfit standing there. She was staring at his legs before slowly looking up his body to his face.

Her eyes widened. “I-I-Is there something I-I can h-help you w, with?” she squeaked out.

“How have you been, Rosie?!” Bon Bon said, walking up to the maid and hugging her.

The now named Rosie seemed to give the hug back but still confused about the situation. “I, I’m doing fine, Miss Sweetie,” she said before letting go and taking the three in.

“These two will be staying with me for the duration of my time home, Rosie,” Bon Bon said.

“I see… Oh, right! Let me just—” She levitated the baggage from the three of them and took them inside. “I’ll deliver your personal effects to your rooms. Oh,” she turned to Bon Bon, “we only have one guest room, Miss Sweetie.”

“That’s fine, Rosie. Lyra will be in my room and Anon will have the guest room.”

“Very well,” she said, making her way up the stairs. “Then this will be much like those sleepovers the two of you used to have when you were younger and sleeping together.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Bon Bon said with a smirk as Lyra held back a chuckle. “How are my parents doing, Rosie?”

“Your father is doing well as can be, though the early Winter Wrap-Up is giving him some trouble. As for your mother, well… she’s still doing her best to stay awake. She’s trying out a new method concocted which has her taking daily potions instead of her usual remedies.”

Hearing that had Anon worried there was some sort of family drama he wasn’t aware of, so he prepared himself for the worst to come.

“She’ll be quite happy to have the season change so early,” Bon Bon said, following the maid.

The halls were massive in size; Anon would figure it’d be fit for a pony, but it was roomy enough for several people to walk side-by-side without any complications. The place had extravagant décor, livening things up. He took some time to examine the different photos on the wall, finding some amusement at the younger images of Bon Bon.

“You certainly had an interesting array of pets when you were younger,” Anon said, looking at a picture of her and some animals.

Lyra immediately busted out laughing, falling to the ground and kicking her hooves in the air. Bon Bon walked up and looked at the picture, blushing in embarrassment.

“Ehr, yes, some of those are pets.”

“I’m surprised you were allowed to have a bear as a pet, those are pretty dangerous don’t you think?”

Anon didn’t think Lyra’s laughter could get any louder as tears streamed down her face.

“Anon, that’s… not a pet…” Bon Bon sounded very flustered.

“What do you—” He paused as his eyes widened, seeing a massive bear coming up at the four down the hall. “Coincidentally Bon Bon, your bear is behind you.”

Turning around, Bon Bon gave a large smile and ran up to the bear. The bear opened up its arms and grabbed the mare in a large hug, letting out a rumble of content. After letting go, Bon Bon turned around and walked alongside the bear. It glared at Lyra as she stood up, wiping some of her tears away.

Bon Bon cleared her throat, looking at Anon. “Anon, I’d like you to meet my mom, Halas Curskie. Mom, this is Anon.”

“Rar ra raah,” the bear, who also appeared to be Bon Bon’s mom, growled at Anon, giving him a paw.

Accepting the handshake while looking stupefied, he was shaken pretty hard, nearly thrown to the ground. “Mom! Remember, control your strength!”

“Rer, ra ra gurder rara.”

“I know he looks big but he’s not strong enough to take on a bear!” Bon Bon paused, looking behind Halas and squealed, running around the bear and jumping into a pony. “Daddy!”

“Hello, Sweetie!” her dad said, giving her a large hug. “It’s been so long since you’ve last visited. And is this your alien friend you’ve written about?” he asked, walking up to him.

“Yes, daddy. Anon, this is my dad.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Anon. You can call me Eddie.”

“Uh, right… yes.” He was still somewhat unnerved by being shaken by a bear, who was apparently Bon Bon’s mom.

“Mr. Eddie,” Rosie the maid said, “I was just getting them to their rooms a—”

Eddie held up a hoof, cutting the maid off. “Say no more, Rosie. Proceed with what you’re doing and then bring them down so we all can have a meal together; it’s already supper time and I am quite famished.”

“Rah, reda r ager ra ra.”

“Hahahaha, why yes, we will make sure of that, honey. Rosie, do please to make sure my little Sweetie Drops don’t scamper off somewhere after I leave.”

“Yes, Mr. Eddie,” Rosie said, making Bon Bon scrunch her face up with a grunt.

Eddie and Halas continued talking to one another as they walked away from the group and down the stairs.

Anon turned to Bon Bon. “See, your mom being a bear, that is something you should have mentioned ahead of time.”

“S-Sorry,” she said, flattening her ears against her head. “It sort of passed my head; I’m just so used to it.”

“How can you be used to your mother being a bear of all things? Wait, a better question: Are you part bear?”

Lyra snickered,” N, N, Nooo, she… she was cursed with that!” She started giggling, attempting to hold back her laughter.

“We can walk and talk to the guest room, Miss Sweetie,” Rosie said as she proceeded down the hall.

The three of them followed as Lyra continued snickering, something Bon Bon rolled her eyes at.

“So, Bon Bon, is Sweetie some sort of nickname for you here?” Anon asked, trying to find something to talk about.

“No, that’s my name.”

Anon stumbled hearing that. “Hold the phone, that’s your name?!”

She looked at him in confusion. “Um… yes?”

“That’s, just… it’s a pretty big thing to not know, Bon Bon. First your part bear and now you have a different name?”

“I’m not part bear.”

“Lighten up,” Lyra said. “Some ponies have multiple names. Like how Sweetie Drops here is called Bon Bon, or for another instance, Derpy. Her real name is Ditzy Doo.”

“…This is one of those weird pony things, isn’t it?” he asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Yes, yes it is,” Lyra answered with a nod of her head.

“And something that, apparently, Lyra forgot to teach you about,” Bon Bon said. “Once again.”

Lyra had the decency to look embarrassed. “Hey, hey! Teaching the first-ever alien without any knowledge of how is hard! I’m surprised I did such a good job!”

“Is there anything else I should be told about so we can get any more surprises out of the way?”

“I can tell you that your room is right here, Mr. Anon,” Rosie said, poking her head out of a room.

Opening the door, something shot straight at Bon Bon, landing on her face with a plop. “Sweetie!”

“Bella Belle!”

The little thing dropped to the ground, showing an incredibly small pony the size of a head. She smiled back up at Bon Bon. “It’s been so long since you’ve been home! And wow, what’s with the tall… whatever you are!”

“Bella, this is Anon, our alien friend.”

“Hi,” he said with a wave. “So what’s with the adorable little pony?”

“Thanks!” she said with a jump.

“That’s my sister and the true heir of this company.”

A gentle laugh tickled out of Bella. “Silly, you’re clearly the one that should lead. What would anypony say of someone they had to look down on leading their company?”

“Bella,” Rosie started, “I’ve been looking for you all day. Why have you been hiding here in the guest room?”

“I like to study in here instead of the actual study room, remember? I don’t know why mom and dad don’t build in a window for that place, it’s so stuffy in there.”

Looking inside, Anon could see it was quite spacious with a massive bed, just his size. A desk off to the side had a lantern on, papers and books were strewn about. Books were neatly stacked up to the chair, like stairs to get up to, with more books stacked on top of the chair for more height.

‘So cute.’

“I will have to clean this all up before you can come in, Mr. Anon. I’ll be depositing all of this in the study room.”

“Aawww.”

“Is there anything I should be aware of that you need while you’re staying here?” she asked, placing his luggage on the bed.

“Nothing off the top of my head I can think of.”

“Should you need anything just ring that bell and one of the live-in maids will assist you,” Rosie said, walking past him and toward the other two. “Now if we could, Miss Sweetie, your parents are waiting on us for the evening meal and it would be nice if you all could go directly there with me.”

“Why do I get the feeling that Bon Bon doesn’t like to listen to her parents,” Anon said as Rosie led the four of them.

“She has difficulty with following directions, that’s all,” Rosie said, turning her head and looking at Sweetie Drops with a grin. “It’s gotten her in trouble more times than I can count.”

Lyra chuckled, “Hey, remember when we went out to that part over at Clemens?”

“Yes, I remember that very well,” Bon Bon answered, gritting her teeth.

Lyra let out a laugh, looking at Anon. “Bon Bon here kicked the crap out of five stallions trying to hit on her while attempting some other lewd things. A few of us at the party tried to help but Bonnie here managed to deal with them very quickly. It was hilarious seeing it go down!”

“When we came here, I was hoping to leave a better impression on my life…”

“Don’t worry, Bon Bon” Anon said patting her head, “you’re still the most normal pony I know.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” she asked, eyebrow raised.

“Coming from me, it should.”

She smirked at that. After Rosie deposited their baggage’s in their room, she escorted them to a dining room with a rather modest-looking table where both Halas and Eddie sat at.

“It’s great to see you all here together,” Eddie said from his seat. “Please, seat yourselves.”

Anon took a seat at the farthest end of the table, with Lyra and Bon Bon sitting on either side of him. The little pony sat beside Bon Bon in a very high chair, clearly built for her size.

“I hope you’re fine with the meal we’ve prepared, Anonymous,” Eddie said, pointing at the many soups and loaves of bread around him. He then clapped his hooves together loudly. “May we commence our bountiful meal with one another in a friendly manner.”

“A friendly feast to be shared with friends,” the rest of the ponies said together, with Halas growling something alongside them. They all let out their claps together before digging into their food at the table.

Sipping on the soup, Anon couldn’t help but feel impressed on how flavorful it was with the spices and how creamy it came out.

“So Anonymous, how are you enjoying your stay in our world?” Eddie said, brushing away some crumbs from his lips.

“It’s been something, that’s for sure. Dealing with everyone’s antics is an adventure in itself.”

“I bet. I’ve heard quite a few rumors going around, not just what happened in Mercanville but also in Ponyville where you stay with Sweetie and Lyra. I do hope you’re keeping my daughter out of trouble out there,” he said with a smirk. “Lyra here always seems to get into the oddest situations.”

“I do seem to be dragged into quite a few,” Bon Bon admitted, “though not all of them are because of Lyra.”

“Rar rah rehr ra, rada ra ger rara,” Halas said, right before going back to daintily eating her fish.

“No, that doesn’t mean I’m done with the agency,” Bon Bon said with a roll of her eyes.

“But you can’t use it to not lead the company now!” Bella said, nibbling on a piece of bread. “Thank goodness, I thought they’d have to have me lead it.”

“You still are, I’m not suited for that kind of work like you are Bella. Hay, my special talent is making candy.”

“One of our businesses involve candy making,” Eddie said, smearing butter on some bread. “As does import candy. Which by the way, I do have to thank Lyra for that tip regarding the sapphire dogs. Trying to sell me tainted fish would have hurt my business, and I’d never know about it without knowing of their involvements with the medical wards.”

“Rah ra, rada ger rar rara rada ra,” Halas said with a huff.

“Why yes, I can agree with that!” Eddie said, making Lyra narrow her eyes at Halas.

“Please, I’m better behaved than you take me for!”

 The bear snorted, “Re erh ra ram rarg ra!”

“As if you’re any better! Trying to end that deal with that gypsy and look where that ended you.”

“Lyra, behave,” Bon Bon said.

“Rad-der rada redr rada!”

“Mom, you too.”

The two continued arguing, leaving Anon confused about what was going on. Eddie took it all in stride, sipping on his soup. Bella Belle was trying to spread butter on a role, tongue sticking out as she paid excruciating detail to her task. Bon Bon herself ignored what was currently happening, also enjoying her meal.

“Is this common?” he asked Bon Bon.

“Yes, it is,” she answered while breaking off some bread and spreading butter on it.

“Shouldn’t we stop it?”

Bon Bon merely shrugged, “It’s better to let it run its course.”

It was an awkward meal, sitting there and trying to eat as the two fought, throwing their words at one another.

‘Better than them throwing food, I suppose.’

Things decided to take a turn for the worst, or more accurately, being more annoying.

“Rah! Ra ger rara rerger rar rarder ra!”

“Hah! Jokes on you! Bon Bon’s in love with me!”

That forced a silence that permeated the room. Bon Bon stared at Lyra, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Halas had her mouth wide open, astonished to hear that.

Bella Belle looked at everyone, astonished to hear that. “I knew it!”

Eddie coughed a few times, “…Well then. I, myself, am quite happy to hear that Bon Bon has somepony she can be with, and am not too surprised at this happening. I always thought something was up with you two, quite amazed it took so long for this to finally happen in fact.”

“RAH-RA! RADA RADRA RARA, GER GRADUR RAAA RANA!”

“Halas, honey, you should remember your early years before we even met! Why, for a long time, I personally thought I was going to be stuck with two mares!”

Halas sputtered as Eddie chuckled. The bear calmed down before pointing at Lyra, “Reder-rader-ra-ra-ra-ra-raerdersr-raaa!” she growled out.

Lyra blinked a few times before she pointed at Anon, her face turning slightly red, “W-Well, at some point… he could help w—”

“LYRA!” Bon Bon squeaked out, her face a fiery red. “SHUT UP! THAT’S TOO EMBARRASSING TO TALK ABOUT WITH MY FAMILY!”

“Now hold up Lyra, I thought you said you were the one with Sweetie—” Eddie paused, turning from Lyra to Anon with a smirk. “Oh, you sly stallion! To think those rumors about you were true after all!”

Anon rubbed his face with the palm of his hand. “Eddie, there’s n—”

“I do hope you treat them both well, especially my daughter,” Eddie said as Lyra and Halas started to argue once more.

Anon could only place his face into the palms of his hands, letting out a groan.

“Hey, leave Anon out of this!” Lyra spouted.

“Rader rada rada ger ra na-rana, radierraner ragaera!”

The others at the table gasped in shock at whatever Halas had just said, looking at him for a reaction. Anon simply sat there, unsure what to do about the turn of events.

“Halas!” Eddie said, upset with her. “Don’t be rude to a guest like that! You should apologize for your behavior!”

“Hehr, rader, ra ger rada.”

“So stop making a jerk of yourself and treat him nicer!” Lyra said with anger.

“Anon, why aren’t you defending yourself?” Bon Bon asked, looking humiliated from her mom’s actions and looking at him with concern.

“If you could clarify for me what exactly is happening, I might be able to do that… I think?”

Bon Bon looked at him with a furrowed brow, confused. “My mom just called you a bluthering-balueth!”

The others looked at him, wondering what his reaction would be. “Okay, first off I’m an alien, remember? I have no idea what a bluthering-baleuth is or even how offensive that is. Sounds silly if I’m being honest. Second, I can’t understand your mom at all, Bon Bon.”

She gave him a deadpanned look, “Anon, I know my mom has an accent, but—”

“No, I mean I can’t understand her words at all or anything she’s saying.” They gave him questioning stares. “She sounds like… well, a bear to me. A very cartoony bear, but a bear nonetheless.”

“Rader-rada reder rara?”

“Anon, can you perhaps tell us exactly what she sounds like?” Eddie asked.

“It’s just a bunch of rada-rada junk that I can’t understand.”

“This is quite odd,” Eddie said, looking at Anon. “Why would you hear that when we can hear her quite clearly?”

Bon Bon had a sudden realization, “Anon has an ability that allows him to nullify magic completely, so it doesn’t work on him,” she said. “It’s kind of like those curses that some of the people have out in town. Though, how come the hearing isn’t working?” she asked Anon. “I thought you had control over your power.”

“The trainers said the full capabilities of my ability weren’t fully understood, but they mentioned things may present itself in the future.”

“So maybe sound can’t affect you either,” Lyra said, rubbing her chin. “That’s so OP. Never to have sirens calling affecting you, to have no magical words influencing you.”

“So Halas’s curse is tied to her speaking somehow, yet we can still hear her. How peculiar.”

“Oh!” Bella waved a hoof in the air. “Perhaps her curse is tied to animals as well? Maybe she speaks bear in the background but the curse isn’t strong enough to prevent her from speaking Equestrian?”

“That curse is taking all it has keeping her in that form,” Eddie said, humming to himself.

‘I can already see where this is going,’ Anon thought, taking a bite of his delicious bread. ‘This is supposed to show off my skill in a real-life scenario. I knew I’d have to use it eventually, but for something like this feels so weird.’

“Halas, I want to try my powers on you. If I’m correct, I might be able to nullify them, at least for a time.”

“Redr radr ra da rara?!” Halas said, waving her large bear arms in the air while looking at Anon.

“I think Anon should rethink his offer. Why should he help you after what you said?!” Lyra spoke loudly with an angered expression.

“Rader ra ger, ra-ha-haaaar!”

“Apologizing only because you want something isn’t a good apology to give in the first place!”

“Anon,” Bon Bon said, getting his attention, “I know my mom hasn’t been a good host, but… she’s been like this for a very long time. It would mean a lot to my parents and me if you tried helping her.”






 Scooting his chair back, he stood up and slowly walked over to the large form of Halas. She stared at him with hope in her eyes. Lyra murmured something about not deserving this; Anon ignored her, getting himself ready for the first true usage of the skill.

“Well, here goes nothing,” he said, placing his right hand on her shoulder.

Finding his inner trigger, he turned on his nullification, feeling it course through his body. A few seconds go by in silence as the table watches the bear. With no warning, she immediately shrunk in size, now in the air where his hand was. He caught a glimpse of what she looked like, closely resembling Bon Bon but with different hair color and slightly darker fur. Halas fell right after changing, unable to stay in the air and falling right back into her seat. She turned back into a bear after a few seconds of being away from his hand, pushing her on to the ground.

Eddie gasped, seeing what had happened and astonished it worked in the first place. Halas sat back up, amazed at what had happened. Getting her back in her seat, he aimed his hand for around her waist this time so she didn’t appear in the air like last time.

Once again, she changed back into a pony, blinking at everyone around the table. Halas stared down at her front legs, turning her hooves over and looking at them. Eddie got up from his chair, walking around the table to his wife. “Halas… honey?”

“E… Eddie?”

Eddie wrapped his hooves around Halas, giving her a large hug, which Halas returned. Anon had to move his hand to her back to keep out of the way.

 “Oh Halas, I never thought I’d see you like that again!”

“It feels so great to be a pony once more. You have no idea how heavy it feels, being a bear.”

“Uuuum…” The two departed from one another before looking at Anon, with his hand still on her back. “It’s not exactly permanent, as you saw the first time. So long as I’m touching her, she’s fine, but once I let go she’s going to turn back into a bear.”

“So… it’s not permanent,” Halas said, looking sad.

“But isn’t it great that you’re getting this opportunity to be back to your old self?” Eddie said, trying to cheer her up.

“Yes, I suppose that’s true.” Halas turned to Bon Bon and stared at her daughter for a few moments. “Sweetie… he’s a keeper.” Lyra and Bon Bon groaned hearing that.

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 rest of the dinner involved Anon sitting beside Halas with his hand on her back so she could continue being a pony. She was extremely cheerful during the meal, even laughing at how wrong a certain gypsy pony was, whom Anon assumed was who cursed her in the first place.

The meal was awkward for Anon, as, at the end of it, Halas and Eddie started kissing, right before full-on making out. He could do nothing but sit there with his hand on her back. Halas had, of course, changed her mind about Anon and thought he was a perfect match for Bon Bon. She, of course, wanted to have him around more often. He could easily guess why she’d want that.

Once the dinner was done, Anon was able to remove his arm to the ire of Halas and followed Bon Bon and Lyra outside to her backyard. Lyra, wanting to let off some steam, started to build a large snowbear with her magic, right before tackling it to the ground in a fury. Anon and Bon Bon sat on the bench, watching her antics.

“Anon, I do appreciate what you did for my mom,” she said with a smile. “I haven’t seen her like that since I was a young filly.”

Anon wasn’t sure how to reply, still at odds with what had happened. At that moment, Lyra did a high flying jump kick at the snowbear, its head flying off from the kick. She then, once more, began building the bear.

“Bon Bon, about that whole thing about me being with you two—”

“I… I know, Anon. I know you feel uncomfortable around that thought. Lyra and I, we wouldn’t mind of course if you gave it a shot, being with us. But I still understand you have difficulties with that idea.”

“Lyra seems to think she can change my mind on this.”

Bon Bon laughed, “If anypony can convince you we’re worth being with, it’s her.”

“Can’t my friendship be enough for you two? I mean, you’re with Lyra already; surely that’s enough for you?”

Bon Bon fidgeted in her seat, “I originally thought just being her friend was enough for me, even though I wanted more. I was fine so long as she was happy. But, looking back on it, I can’t believe how stupid I was. Is it wrong for me to want more out of life, to be greedy and be with both of you?”

“I don’t see how you two even like me. I’ve been here for only a few months.”

“Love can’t be measured in time, Anon. Love is measured with how you feel, with what you do with that time, and how much you treasure it.”

“It still doesn’t feel right to me, Bon Bon…”

“That’s perfectly fine with me, Anon. We’ll give you all the time you need. We just… we hope that you try someday being with us.”

“I don’t think it’ll be easy if it even happens.”

“Love isn’t easy, I learned that lesson the hard way.”

Shaking his head, he leaned back into the bench, watching Lyra forming a fairly convincing bear head out of the snow before placing it on the body. Walking a good way from it, she charged straight at the bear with a yell, slamming right into it and throwing snow everywhere.

“See,” Lyra said, with a cough as she lay on her back, “I can totally take on a bear.”

Bon Bon giggled at the sight, smiling at the scene. Lyra got up and shook off the snow before rebuilding the bear once more.

“Sooo… what exactly did your mom say back at the table about me anyway?”

“The bluthering-balueth thing?”

“No, the part when Lyra was pointing at me for some strange reason and you flipped out.”

Her face reddened like mad, looking down at the ground. “I-I’d rather not say, and you don’t want to hear about it.”

“If you say so,” he said, thinking about bringing it up with Eddie later to find out.

“Switching topics, how has your little… power thing been going? The other one Anon, not the nullify power.”

“Is… she going to be a problem if I say anything out loud?” Anon asked, pointing at the small form of Bella Belle who was sitting off to the side with a score placard, scoring Lyra’s attempts at tackling the snowbear.

“Shouldn’t be. She’s very good at keeping secrets, right Bella?”

“Uncy Blue already told me about his super-silly-secret! I also still know all the safe combinations to Uncy Blue’s house and haven’t told anyone yet!”

“Uncy Blue?” Anon asked Bon Bon.

“It’s Prince Blueblood. I don’t know why but after I joined the agency, he encountered Bella and dotes on her like a little filly.”

“...Isn’t she a little filly?”

“She’s in college right now, the first year. She’s just really, really small.”

“It’s not a cursed thing is it?”

“No, that’s just how she is. She was born so small they were afraid she wouldn’t make it the first month. Oh, how wrong everyone was. Bella has the energy of ten mares and five times the cute powers.”

“Is that why her cutie mark is a small, cute face?”

“It is.” Bon Bon shook her head. “Getting off-topic, your little cartoon powers haven’t been bothering you have they?”

“I keep saying it’s not a power. A lot of your actions and how things work just fit with cartoons in my world. At times it is mostly slapstick, while other times I feel like I’m part of some serialized storyline but as a side character. If I only had some access to the internet I could look up a tropes page.”

“Momus isn’t still bugging you is it?”

“Of course it is. The guy could see into the future and saw multiple possibilities. He has plans for me, for us. Only… it doesn’t feel like I’ve got any control over the narrative. I don’t understand it. I’ve looked into a lot of the events that have happened around us for the past few months, and so far, nothing seems to add up.”

“Lyra and I, outside our jobs, are just normal ponies. It’s almost common to find a pony here or there, winding up in some kind of adventure. Cheerilee last week was on a field trip that wound up with the class going back in time four hundred years ago, and upon returning had solved ways out of the cave they were stuck in originally.”

“That’s not exactly what I－ They went back in time?”

“Yes. I hear that Diamond Tiara was instrumental in getting them back in fact.”

‘So my training is paying off with her. Good.’

“All I’m getting at Anon is that perhaps you’re not looking at the right ponies for this ‘main story’ you think is happening?”

Anon went to say something and then paused. Perhaps she was right. He had been thinking this whole time that Momus had chosen him because he was instrumental in everything for his plans to work. For some reason, he interpreted that as being important to the main plot of what was happening and had imagined him as being the main character.

‘But what if I have that wrong? What if I’m just a side story that leads up to the main event in the future?’

It dawned on him what he thought he was and had refused to acknowledge.

“Oh god… we’re background characters.”

“I’m sorry?”

“We’re not needed for the plot, at least not for a while. I’m a MacGuffin that Momus had created, and will be hinted at in future events. You and Lyra haven’t done anything that involves the world at large, not unlike a certain pony and her friends.” He placed his face into the palms of his hands. “It’s Twilight. Twilight and her friends are the main characters. Dammit, I feel like such a fool.”

“Twilight does make some sense. She’s the apprentice of the princess, runs the town library, is a magical prodigy, and is an Element alongside the other five of her close friends.”

‘Why did I think I was the main character? It was so obvious. Lyra and Bon Bon are a side plot if they even get an arch of their own.’

“So what does that mean for us?” Bon Bon asked. “I’m still not sure what this ‘cartoon’ means but it doesn’t ruin things for you does it?”

“No, it doesn’t, though my pride sure took a hit. This means I don’t have to worry about my actions as much. Whatever happens, until it somehow involves Twilight and friends, I’m probably safe. I should be able to plan a way for us to avoid a lot of conflicts. We just need to stay out of her way as much as we can until certain points of her plot are developed. Easy-peasy.”

“Ah, speaking of Twilight, that reminds me, one of my associates had leaked to me about a package the princess is planning on sending to Twilight soon that involves Star Swirl the Bearded. He was a mentor to the princess that－”

“And we’re staying away from that mare for until she finishes with her bearded business!”

“But, I have some books I want to check out from the－”

“Far, faaar away!”



~End Chapter Twenty Two~