Anon - On The Desolate Wintery Road

>Snow, beautiful snow on a gray day
>It’s gently floating down from the gray sky and lands on your nose, making you close your eyes and shake your head a bit
>You are Birch, and you are currently walking peacefully trough the snowy desolate landscape as you make your way towards the village
>It’s one of those roads almost nopony uses since it’s longer than all the others
>But that’s just what you like about it, it’s pretty much untouched, and on such a pristine day it just feels so peaceful
>The snow keeps falling as you slowly trot forward
>There’s no wind today, and it’s pretty warm for a winter day
>Perfect tranquil quiet, nothing but the sound of your hooves softly stepping on the snow
>You can’t help but to smile as you take in the scenery of the dead looking trees lining the road, making it easy to see where the road actually goes beneath all the snow
>But then you suddenly notice footsteps in the snow
>You pick up your pace and make your way to them and start inspecting them
>That shape, it’s got to be the footsteps of Anon, there’s no mistaking it
>But what makes you feel weird is how they seem to start from thin air suddenly
>You look backwards
>No, only your hoofprints in the snow
>You have to ask Anon how he did it once you see him the next time
>Suddenly the wind starts to blow, picking up some of the faint snow and kicking up a lot of it
>You have to close your eyes at the sharp wind, it’s stronger than you thought
>There’s a crunch behind you
>You glance behind yourself and see a silhouette of a pony
>But it’s... wrong...
>It looks like there’s two tentacles coming out from each side of it’s neck
>You let out a small squeak as the form suddenly takes a step towards you and starts to gallop towards you
>You take off and start running in fright
>Anons footsteps seem fresh, and you really feel like meeting a friendly face right now

>You are not sure if the sounds of snow come from your hooves, or from the monster pony chasing you
>You don’t want to glance behind you so you just stare at the footprints and run
>But then you take notice of something else
>The footprints...
>They are bare
>Anon would never go out on weather like this without his shoes! Not to mention walk bare feet!
>You stop galloping and stop and glance behind you
>Your mane is now blocking a part of your view and you quickly wipe it away with your hoof
>Nothing’s following you
>You keep breathing hard from all the running away
>Your mane is now a mess, and your scarf has pretty much come undone, it’s a miracle it’s still on you
>You look around
>Seems like the gust of wind ahs died down as well, in fact the road seems like it’s back to it’s normal tranquil state like nothing happened
>You look back forward and see a silhouette in the distance
>A mothpony! And it looks normal enough!
>You really do not feel like being alone out here now, you feel a bit spooked at your encounter
>You start to make your way towards the mothponys form but then suddenly another gust of wind kicks up, kicking up snow
>You have to close your eyes as some snowflakes gets in them
>There’s a squeak, and then the sound of hooves running on snow
>You force your eyes open and see the form of the mothpony disappearing into the distance
>”Wait!”
>But it seems like the mothpony does not hear your call and soon enough she disappears from your sight into the rain of snow
>Your neck feels colder than usual
>You glance at the ground
>Oh, the wind must have blown your undone scarf off
>You pick it up and give it a little shake
>There’s snow on it and it does not come off
>You frown no-
“Birch?”
>You jump a bit in fright and turn to look at your side
>Anon is standing there
>Wha- how? When did he get so sneaky?
“Birch, are you ok? You’ve been spacing out for a while now”
>”I have?”

>You have no idea what he’s talking about
>You shake the scarf a bit more and wrap it back around your neck
>”Anon, why are you walking around bear foote-“
>You stop talking as you look at his feet
>His shoes are on
“Birch, are you feeling all right?”
>”But I sa-“
>You look back, and your mouth falls open
>It’s the beginning of the road
>You look forward now at the road before you
>it’s untouched
>”But-“
>You look backwards again and then forward once more as Anon raises an eyebrow at you
“What’s wrong, you seem a bit disturbed?”
>What is this?
>Then you notice something else
>No snow is falling down
>...
>Did you doze off while standing?
>You shake your head
>”No, it's nothing...”
>Anon begins walking forward
“Come on Birch, let’s go”
>You take flight and flutter next to Anon as he walks
>You keep thinking back at that weird dream and the walk goes on in silence
>After a while you get brought back to attention by Anons swearing
“Great, just great...”
>Anon stops and so do you
>”What is it?”
>Anon takes off his shoes and holds them up
>They have come undone like someone would have cut every stitch that held the shoes together
“My shoes have come to the end of their road”
>You take the shoes into your hooves for closer inspection as Anon starts to take his socks off
>You glance at Anon with a puzzled look on your face which he notices
“I don't like the feeling of wet soggy socks on my legs”
>You get back to looking at the shoes, it’s just one of those weird Anon habits he has
>Anon lets out a yelp as he takes a few steps barefooted
“Oh fuck that’s cold...”
>His shoes are pretty much totaled
>You hand them back and Anon takes them
“They’re good shoes, maybe I can get them fixed somewhere. It looks like the stitches are the only thing that broke”
>”That’s pretty we-“

>You don’t get to finish your sentence as there’s a sudden powerful gust of wind which kicks up so much snow it feels like you’re in the middle of a blizzard
>It takes all the strength in your mothpony wings to stay still instead of getting blown away
>But soon enough it dies down as mysteriously as it began
“What the heck was that?”
>You give Anon a shrug while wondering the same thing
“Let’s get out of here, it’s starting to feel really chilly”
>Anon starts to walk and you start to follow him
>Anon glances back at you and then he stops while looking surprised
“Birch, look!”
>You also glance behind you
>The whole road behind you is covered in snow, and it has covered all of Anons tracks up to the point where he stood still during the peculiar wind
“Isn’t it cool? It almost looks like my tracks begin from thin air!”
>You smile and give Anon a nod
>It really does look weird
>Anon starts to jog forward and you take off fast after him
>You glance at the tracks he’s leaving and suddenly you feel a chill as a sense of déjà vu hits you and you come to a halt
>And then you feel something land softly on your nose
>It’s a big snowflake
“Birch hurry up it’s starting to snow soon!”
>You shake your head and shoot off after Anon
>As you reach him you decide to land so you can gallop next to him, it warms you up more than flying
>You look at the snowy ground and drop down
>And then you turn to say something to Anon
>There is none
>You blink in surprise
>What?
>You look around

>You are at the start of the desolate road to the village
>You...what were you doing?
>A single snowflake drops down before you
>You glance at the gray sky as a few more float down
>It’s such a beautiful day
>The road before you looks peaceful and tranquil
>You decide to take the scenic route to the village
>Can’t waste such a rare chance to walk down an untouched and peaceful road
>You start to walk down the road while taking in the beauty of the winter
>Snow, beautiful snow on a gray day