Madness of Anonymous

Chapter: 8

You quickly snatch the bag from her and peer inside, a deep frown carved into your facial features. You give a sigh of relief as you find all your items in the bag, only the sound comes out as more of a low growl as you glare daggers at the purple unicorn. She gives a sheepish smile before it turns to a frown as you attempt to slam the door after recovering your things. The handle is encased in a firm purple glow, halting your progress. You stare at the unicorn with a mix of hatred and bewilderment at the situation, before she opens the door wide enough for her to enter your home whilst shaking her head sadly. You find Twilight in your living room on the couch with a newspaper beside her, a look of concern on her face. You sigh before sitting yourself down in your armchair, knowing she wouldn't have came here if it wasn't important.

"Were worried about you, you know?" She asks sadly, turning to you.

You laugh slightly and reassure her that nothing, absolutely nothing, is wrong with you. She shakes her head, lifting the newspaper to you. Depicted in the centre of the newspaper is a large photograph of the restaurant you were in earlier today, only the room is completely trashed with tables and chairs decimated and lying as nothing but splinters of METAL on the ground. THAT surprised you. It also showed shattered windows and the door you slammed shut earlier swinging from it's brass hinges. Around the photo are quotes and witness statements printed in columns, quite a few given the large amount of patrons you remember being at the establishment. The words "crazed" and "just snapped" are the most commonly printed words printed within these columns. Oh, a statement by the princesses as well? Huh, seems they are VERY concerned about you in the sense that they want you safe and well. But can you trust them, Anonymous? None of the other articles really caught your interest, rumours of a school being built at a place called "Littlehorn" was among these stories.

The newspaper was gently taken from you by a purple aura and set down on the wooden table beside you. You look at Twilight as she fidgeted nervously with her front hooves, tapping them together slightly. She looks at the bag of items set next to you on the floor and begins to murmur quietly, not having the courage to say what she wanted loudly enough to reach your ears.

"You'll have to speak louder if you want me to hear you." You say softly.

"...Well, it's just that I came here after I heard about what happened to you, but I found your door locked. I thought you were home and needed help, so I opened the door with my magic. I checked everywhere but couldn't find you, so I checked the basement, which was locked also." She says apologetically with her head bowed low.

You wave your hand and insist she continue.

"I found that bag-" She stops to indicate to the brown bag on the floor with a hoof before continuing "-On your workbench and thought it could be a hint to what happened to you. I picked up the bag but had to rush to the library to use some books on psychology to see if I could match up any clues. Though... the books didn't point to anything other than you doing some metalwork as a hobby, he he he..." She laughs sheepishly, rubbing one of her forelegs with the other.

"Well, that answers some of my questions but not one of the biggest. Why didn't you just teleport?" You ask sternly.

"I'm not exactly in full condition to do so many teleport spells... I've been pretty busy lately..." She replies.

She begins to go through a long-winded speech on what she's been doing since you last saw her. You shut out her voice almost completely, only hearing some part about something big being planned by Princess Celestia, but you don't pay much attention. You nod at random intervals as her words fall on death ears, you don't even notice the fact she's stopped talking and is just watching you bob your head silently at least a dozen times after she stopped talking.

"Anon! Were you paying attention?!" She yells.

"Can't say I was." You reply flatly.

She sighs before recomposing herself. She stares at you for a moment, a stern look crossing her features as she examines your more rugged appearance. Her face takes on a softer, more saddened yet concerned, look than the look she gave you mere moments ago.

"Have you been sleeping?" She asks softly.

You lower your vision to the hands on your lap, the fingers of one hand tapping against those of the other hand nervously as you shake your head. You explain how you've only ever slept when you literally passed out from exhaustion, and that you've not really had many dreams which weren't nightmares. She looks at you sympathetically as you explain, letting you let off what you've had on your chest for so long. You even give a sigh before telling her even more, detailing your hellish experience in the hospital without glossing over anything. It was at midnight when she said her goodbyes and approached your front door, turning around to face you whilst holding the door-handle in her magical grip.

"Are you okay if I come up here tomorrow, to maybe help you with what's happened?" She asks calmly.

You reply with a shrug and give conformation. You didn't have anything to do besides continue building the suit, anyway. Maybe now would be a good time to sleep and wake up early to continue the suit's construction. She smiles at you before turning back towards the door.

"Oh-" She exclaims happily. "-I forgot to mention, nice to see you taking an interest in mechanics!" She shouts back at you in a friendly tone before leaving your house, shutting the door behind her.

You stand up wearily and lock the front door before returning to your armchair, releasing a breathe you've felt way you down for months. A great weight seems to lift from you... slightly. It would be a long road to recovery, but maybe you'll be in a much better condition at the end of that road.

Or, most likely, not.

-

You awake the next morning to the loud rapping at your front door, a thick book positioned on your face. Snorting a breath in shock, you pull the book from your face and set it on your wooden table. You notice that Twilight left behind the newspaper from yesterday, which may or may not have been intentional. It probably doesn't matter, since you'd be surprised if the Princess' prized student couldn't buy another newspaper. You make a note to check it later, for now you have a visitor. Standing up with the bones within you creaking from the welcome rest you've had, you approach your front door and open it hastily.

Standing outside is Derpy herself, with her mailbags at her sides. She looks at you with at first shock, but then a more calm happy expression as if she remembers something. You smile back at her before indicating for her to speak. She sits on her haunches and digs into one of her mailbags, ruffling through it's contents with haste. She quickly pulls out an envelope and holds it out to you, which you take from her whilst looking around the landscape outside. The world outside is a sea of a grassy plain which spans all the way to Canterlot hanging to the mountainside in the distance, a beautiful site from a distance but not as good up close.

"Bye for now, Anon!" She says whilst flying into the clear blue sky above, the only breaks in the sapphire expanse above being the few faint clouds rolling in the distance.

The sun is high in the air, with it's gentle warm rays sliding across your shoulders. You breath in the fresh air, contemplating what you could spend your day doing in this world of so many possibilities, so many magical places and things to see. A whole world almost completely unknown to you, it's arms outstretched and welcoming for your curiosity and wonder.

"Yeah, toilet sounds good." You say to yourself quietly before returning inside, closing and locking the door behind you.

Quickly relieving yourself and finishing your regular routine for the morning, you head into your living room and open up the letter now in your possession. On it is a letter by the Equestrian Court or something detailing how, despite "criminal damage to an establishment" and "signs of severe mental illness", you've been cleared of criminal charges by order of Princess Celestia herself. Now, you know the princess very well. More than even her subjects. You know for a fact that she didn't do this without a hidden agenda, something she has as a habit though she's poor at hiding this habit. You're sure that Twilight coming over last night to subtly hint at her acting as your psychotherapist has no correlation with this here letter. You smirk to yourself at how obvious they can be, but you may as well humour them since it is for your benefit. Gently setting the letter on your table, you flip through the book you found on your face right until the last page. That's as far as you managed to read, after all. You quickly finish your research before setting the book down and heading to your basement, the brown bag from yesterday in hand.

You descend down the stairs after activating the large magical lantern hanging above and scatter the bags contents atop the workbench. You immediately take interest in the pneumatic components, quickly sketching out some blueprints for the boots you begin work on them immediately. Your welder begins to bring the metals to searing temperatures as the plates meld together to form a thick metal boots. Some rings of metal is crafted into wiring to meld around the shins to be the first layer of the suit. Lifting up the boots, now with their basic structure complete, you create a pneumatic propulsion system on the sole of the boots. This new mechanism completely covers the bottom of the boots. Quickly testing the system, you activate it which causes it to push the bottom of the boot outwards causing you to jolt slightly.

Quickly finishing the system, you take the wire layering and add some more metal plates to the wire to create even more defence. And, just for an added bonus, you add a THIRD layer of metal plating. Thankfully this world's metals are just as strong as the drinking in this world, incredibly lightweight. Thinking their almost ready, you take off your boots and tighten the boots to meld onto your form as you equip them. Walking out the backdoor of your home, you engage the system and hold activate the "lunge" function. Bending downwards into a Runner's starting position, you push with all your might into the ground and, absolutely, SHOOT forwards into the grass ahead. You cause a considerably sized trench as you slide across the ground, collecting a mouth-full of soil as you slide across the ground and landing in a heap in the tall grass like a KO'd Pokémon.

Rubbing your head, you stand up from the ground and switch the system to "Leap" mode. This mode is more of a jump, which is available during a run and even when stationary. Testing the stationary jump, you engage the system before going upwards into the air a distance of three metres, forcing you to land onto the ground on all fours to dispel most of the force. Grinning, you start into a quick sprint before engaging the system causing you to jump into the air and land a couple metres forwards. Satisfied with the system, except for the soil once stuffed into your mouth, you return to your basement and link up some wires and circuits to the metal plates, the wiring reaching all the way to the top of the boots. You leave the some circuits at the top of the boots so the wiring can eventually run all the way to the mask, which will act as the "brain" of the suit under your control.

You begin to work on more of the suit, but the sounds of your door being knocked and many voices above distract you.