Twilight's Journey: The Beginning

>"Twilight."
"Mmmrph?"
>"Twi, it's time to get up."
>You roll over in your bed, trying to drown out the voice and get an extra few minutes of sleep.
>Whoever is trying to wake you stops, and you smile.
>They must have given up.
>Just as you think that a blinding light floods your room and you let out an incoherent grumble. You know it's Anon now. He likes to open your blinds to wake you up on mornings like this.
>"Rise and shine. It's one in the afternoon."
>Afternoons like this.
>He's obviously not going to leave you any choice, so you decide the better option is to give him what he wants.
>You sit up in bed and let out a yawn, stretching out your back with your hooves in the air.
>After what feels like an eternity you make it to solid ground on all fours.
>Everything is sore.
>Everything.
>You turn to Anon, who's still by the window, and he balks at your appearance.
"What did we do yesterday again?"
>"Spent all day on the town. First there was Mrs. Cake at the bakery..."
"Right, having trouble with the delivery carriages not showing up on time."
>"Then there was Lyra and Bon Bon."
"Who spent half an hour arguing before forgetting what they wanted our help with in the first place."
>"Yep. Then Princess Celestia came by."
"With the ENTIRE royal escort. You'd think it was the Summer Sun Celebration or something. Okay okay, now I remember why I feel terrible."
>Anon raises an eyebrow.
>You look down at yourself and frown. You feel all greasy, and even though you can't see it you can tell that your hair is pointed in completely random directions.
"I should probably get cleaned up."
>He laughs, "Good idea."
>Anon goes downstairs and you set about making yourself look presentable.
>After bathing you head to the kitchen and make yourself a nice big mug of coffee.
>You find Anon browsing the shelves in the main room.
"Okay, today we need to..."
>He immediately turns to you with a frown on his face, "Twi, today's your off day. That means no work."
"But we have to..."
>"We don't have to do anything. Celestia herself literally told you to take the day off. You've been working non-stop for the past week."
"What about..."
>"Twi. We both deserve a break. You need to ease up."
"Ease up? You do realize I'm a princess, right? I have things to attend to, people to help, papers to sign."
>"And freaking out about it now does nothing to help you. Is that coffee?"
>Your eyes dart to the side, and you realize the mug of coffee is still floating about a foot to your side, half full.
>With a shrug you take a sip, and give Anon a small smile.
"Maybe?"
>"You never drink coffee."
"... Yeah I do."
>"No, you really don't. I've been here for a few months now and I've never seen you drink coffee. Rarity downs the stuff, but I've never seen you with a mug."
"Uh... you just haven't been around at the right times."
>"I wake you up in the mornings."
"Only when Spike isn't here."
>"Right, so if I start to wake you up every day then I'll see you drinking coffee?"
"Yes."
>He scoffs and shakes his head, standing from the chair and setting the fully closed book down in his place. He approaches you with a smirk on his face, and you back away.
"Don't you even think about it."
>Before you can protest further he's already plucked the mug from mid air, causing your levitation spell to flicker out.
>He takes one big gulp...
>Two.
>Three.
>When he pulls the mug away from his mouth and sets it down on the floor in front of you it doesn't take much effort to tell that it's empty.
>The best way to describe the way you're feeling right now is incredulous.
>Even you rarely use that word.
>It's one of the fancy counterparts to disbelief often seen in literary works. Not an uncommon word, but one would rarely think it.
>However, given the situation you feel completely justified.
"You didn't just..."
>"I did."
"But I..."
>"Need it? Nah you don't need it. It's your day off."
>You know he's right, of course, it's just hard to stop thinking about what needs to be done.
"So all I need to do is relax?"
>"Yeah. I was gonna take you out for the day, but with what we did yesterday I figure we could just stay at the library. How does an evening of reading sound?"
>You can't help but smile.
"That sounds absolutely wonderful, Anon."
>The rest of the day is spent discussing literature and reading with one of your best friends.
>Even with how busy you've been in the past month everything feels just right in this moment.
>In this moment, nothing can go wrong.
-------
>"Twilight."
>This time you're awake in an instant. You sit up and rub your eyes with a small yawn before taking a look at who is waking you.
>It's Spike today.
"Good morning Spike."
>Despite feeling groggy, you still feel better than you did yesterday.
>"I managed to file all the returned books from yesterday, you shouldn't have much to worry about."
"Thanks a lot Spike. I'll be down as soon as I get myself cleaned up. Tell Anon that we need to get prepped to go to Canterlot."
>"Who?"
>You laugh and bring a hoof to your face.
"Sorry if I'm muttering, I just woke up. Tell Anon that we're heading out soon and he needs to get ready."
>Speaking more clearly doesn't seem to help, as Spike only looks slightly more confused than before. "Are you alright Twilight? I know you stayed up late but..."
"Spike, I'm fine. What's going on?"
>"That's what I wanna know. Who's Anon? Are they here?"
>Ever so slowly, as your groggy mind wakes itself up, you start to realize what's happening here.
>The panic starts to set in.
>Your teeth grit, and you feel your right eye start twitching.
>"Uh... Twilight... you okay?"
>A deep breath helps keep your head from going up in flames.
"No... No I'm not okay Spike. Tell me, are you sure you don't know who Anon is? He's been staying here for quite a while now."
>"Never met an Anon before."
"Spike... please gather my friends at the library. I'll be down to join you when you get back."
>He opens his mouth to respond, but you hold up a hoof and shake your head. He nods and backs away slowly before turning around fully and walking down the stairs.
>You fall into your bed, burying your face in the pillow and letting out your held breath in a very long scream. Your horn lights up, and you think you hear books hit the floor. The pillow is pulled away from your face and slams into the window, falling to the ground harmlessly.
>Rising from the bed, you try to breathe, but it feels like the walls are closing in around you.
>What's happening?
>Had you been hallucinating this entire time?
>Wouldn't your friends notice?
>Was it a really vivid dream?
>Are you going crazy?
>Calm down Twilight.
>Think.
>Thinking is what you're good at. Thinking calms you down.
>First, identify the problem.
>Anon is missing. You're pretty sure that's the key problem here. A secondary problem is that Spike seems to not remember his presence.
>If all of your friends can't remember him, then it's safe to say you are the only one who recalls Anon living with you.
>Right, problem identified.
>Now you can hypothesise what is causing this problem.
>Still breathing hard, you make your way downstairs to the main room of the library. You're a lot more calm than you were before, but you still feel quite panicked.
"Causes of the problem."
>You start pacing.
"Maybe I'm going crazy. Maybe Anon was never here and I just invented him. Mom always said I had an active imagination."
>You're pretty sure that's not it, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Your horn flashes and the door to the second floor opens. After a second of concentration a small book floats to your side and you open it.
>Flipping page after page, the panic starts to build again. It seems the past few months had unfolded exactly as they had before: the meeting with the griffons, the trade deal with the minotaurs, the disappearance of the sealed Chrysalis, and the continued management of rebuilding the recently freed crystal empire.
>Everything had happened... except Anon isn't mentioned at all.
>You slam the book shut and throw it into the wall with a growl of frustration.
"Okay, that's not the only thing I can do."
>Deep breaths Twilight.
"Spell, spell, where's that spell?"
>You trot to the far bookshelf, the magic section, and start to pull books, muttering to yourself as you toss them behind you.
"'Magical Mysteries', 'Dodger Dresden's Magical Menagerie', 'Little Spells, Big Consequences'..."
>You've built up quite the collection.
"Ah! Here we are. Your Memory and You. This is perfect."
>With a newly found optimism, you pull the book from the shelf and float it in front of you. It doesn't take you long to find the spell you need after opening the book.
>It's a simple memory spell, often used by unicorns who specialize in psychiatry and psychology.
"Reality Check."
>You raise an eyebrow at the name. Had the author been making a pun? You shake your head, deciding that it's not important.
"A spell to verify a memory as having actually happened in one's life. The user must focus as if casting a recollection spell, bringing thoughts and memories to the forefront of the mind. This is simple when the unicorn in question is verifying a personal memory, but becomes markedly more difficult when helping somepony else. When using the spell on a subject, one should er on the side of caution, as diving too deep into another's mind will cause one to become lost in a trance-like state of the subject's memories that only a heavy physical blow can break. This situation causes the caster and the subject to become linked and blah blah blah..."
>These books spend more time explaining the consequences of a spell than they do actually explaining how to cast said spell.
"The user must recall an extremely strong memory for the spell to be at its most effective. By focusing the magical energy at this memory it is possible to verify if the memory is real. If the recollection becomes extremely vivid then the memory is more than likely real..."
>Wait, more than likely?
>You sigh.
"It's better than what I have now."
>Further reading confirms that if the memory does not become vivid when put under magical influence, then said memory is not real.
>You shut the book and set it to the side.
>There's probably still a few minutes until Spike returns with you're friends, so now is as good a time as any.
>You close your eyes and start to concentrate. You remember when Anon first arrived.
>Ponyville was absolutely abuzz for that first week. Every corner you would turn someone was talking about that strange Anon creature.
>He had been rather... awkward at first, preferring to stay in the library and away from other ponies. You remember him mentioning that you were the only one he had been comfortable around for a while.
>It made sense.
>If you had been pushed into some strange new world with no memory of how you had gotten there, you would have been rather uncomfortable as well.
>It didn't help that in the world he came from ponies weren't sentient, nor were they quite as colorful from what he told you.
>You try not to laugh out loud when you remember his introduction to Pinkie.
>The poor mare had been beside herself when you forbid her from throwing a party for him. By the time he was comfortable enough to allow it you're pretty sure she had been ready the entire time and kept adding new things.
>When the party happened it was the largest one Pinkie had thrown since Luna's re-crowning.
>Ugh... the hangovers from that one.
>His introduction to Rarity...
>He had quite the collection of nice suits by the time she finished with him. You remember him complaining that all he wanted was a t-shirt and some jeans.
>"Nonsense!" Rarity had said, "Only the best for you dear! You're a friend."
>There's a reason she's the element of generosity.
>He also liked to help Applejack on the farm.
>You try not to let your thoughts derail into the toned muscle category.
>There was also Rainbow Dash. If there had been a pony he was closer to than you, it would be Rainbow. He had a cute nickname for her.
>Rainbro.
>They always went out drinking together when time permitted. Anon said she reminded him of a friend he had back in his world.
>He didn't hang out with Fluttershy a lot, but he seemed to share her love of animals. He hadn't been very good at caring for them, though.
>Hmm.
>These memories are easily recalled, ut it might be safer to go for an even stronger one.
>Maybe recalling a more recent one would help, as well.
>There WAS last week.
>You came home from Canterlot so dead tired that you can't really recall it all that well.
>All the same, though, the memory is a strong one.
>Your horn starts to glow, and you feel the magic flow through you.
>You take a deep breath and try to think about what happened that night.
>Celestia had asked for your help that week with an important matter regarding Saddle Arabia, and it was important that every princess attend to the matter.
>The delegates from both sides were there.
>Everything had been peaceful and just fine, but by the time you got back to Ponyville you were one hoof in the grave and just wanted sleep.
>Anon was at the library, waiting for you with that smirk of his.
>Suddenly, a great numbness overtakes your body, and you find your breath catching in your throat.
>The magic has kicked in.
>When you open your eyes you're back in the library, but it's... different somehow.
>"Hey Twi. Not what you thought it would be?"
>You laugh and shake your head.
"I would trade jabs with you, but I need sleep."
>Your actions and words are not your own, but they are. You lack control, but these are things you have already done.
>"Alright, upstairs with you then."
>You take a few steps forward, or at least you think you do.
>Next thing you know Anon is propping you up and laughing, "Whoa, guess you're a bit more tired than you thought."
>That's right. The night before the meeting you hadn't gotten any sleep.
>You were up trying to figure out the applications of a particularly confusing spell.
>Anon pulls you up slowly and gently, and next thing you know you're on his back, hooves draped over his shoulders.
>"Let's get you upstairs."
"That would be nice."
>You're smiling, and you push your head into his shoulder, nuzzling it.
"Sleeeeeeep."
>Suddenly your surroundings flash, and the memory is gone.
>When you get back to the present, there are six bewildered faces in front of you. Your friends and Spike.
"Oh, hi girls."
>Dash frowns, "Um... your eyes were doing that freakish white thing again."
>You frown.
"It's not freakish, it's magic."
>She scoffs, "Whatever."
>"Your face was all red when it was happening too!" shouts Pinkie.
"I... it was?"
"Yepperoni!"
"A... Anyways, we have a huge problem. I just confirmed it. A good friend of ours has gone missing."
>Fluttershy gasped, "Oh no. Who is it? Is it Lyra?"
>You roll your eyes.
"She's on vacation Fluttershy. Now, just to make sure... do any of you remember a human named Anon?"
>Silent confusion. The girls glance at each other, making sounds of bewilderment and nervousness.
>You stomp your right hoof on the ground firmly, causing Fluttershy to jump.
"Then that settles it. None of you can remember him!"
>Dash raises an eyebrow, "Uh... you okay Twi?"
>You shake your head.
"No, I'm really not, but we have work to do."
>If this is going any further you need to fill them in.
>You decide to start from the beginning.