-This new ending begins as Anon wakes up from Marigold’s farewell in dream-

Your eyes open slowly, the lids aching, to see Twilight’s tear stained face smiling down at you. She’s holding one of your hands against her chest and you can feel the rapid thumps of her racing heart. She looks so weary, terrified. But you know she doesn’t have to be anymore, you’ve ended this. You press your palm closer against her collarbone and smile warmly.

Wait, smile? Your jaw...it doesn’t hurt anymore! When you try to speak, Twilight holds a hoof to your lips to silence you.

“We saw everything when we came into the clearing,” she says softly, tears still lingering in her eyes. “That man, you...were hitting him. You collapsed. We were able to heal you some but we still weren’t sure you would...if you...oh Anon.”

She drops her head down against your chest, her body shivering with small sobs of relief. You tenderly stroke her mane, loving the soft silkiness of it under your finger and the warm mass against your chest. Even her tears seeping through your very ruined shirt feel soothing. Otherwise, you feel dizzy and weak, that’s for sure, but that rolling storm of pain from before is almost just a memory now.

“How?” you ask her, moving your mouth careful just in case you were wrong about your jaw.

She raises her head, looking considerably comforted by the sound of you speaking again.

“I did a little of it, healing you I mean, but most of it was...”

Twilight trails off and turns her gaze slowly away from you. You follow her look to a large, shimmering white form standing at your other side. Massive wings block out the sunlight to shade your bloody face. Gleams of gold shine out bright all over, and a cascade of shimmering colors streams down towards you.

God? An angel?

No, you know this shape. You know who this is.

Celestial lowers her wings a little so that the light reaches her face better. You see now that she too is smiling at you, in that gentle mothering way you’ve seen her stare at Twilight sometimes. There’s sadness in her dark-lashed eyes, pity that you can't guess the cause of. She's elegant, though. Just her way of standing there looking at you, you can just feel that she’s royalty. You’ve only met her once or twice, but you recognize that she’s the authority figure around here, and that her healing you must be a great honor.

“She was already in Ponyville when I arrived,” Twilight says. “Spike had called her when I’d gone missing and she was just setting up to do a massive searching spell when I came running in. I told her what happened, like toy wanted me to, and she said she knew where you were. We came here and...you were here. With him. She healed you, much better than I could have done alone. I’m not...I’m not sure you would have survived without her.”

You raise your head just enough to give Celestia a nod in lieu of a bow before lowering it back onto the grass. You’re more tired than you though.

“Your Majesty, thank you,” you murmur. “Thank you for saving my life.”

She gives you a little bow of her arching pale neck in return.

“I owe you a debt of thanks too Anon, for saving my star pupil,” she says. “But there’s…something important I must attend to now. Do you feel well enough to stand? I have enough magic to heal you further if you wish.”

“You had several broken bones in your hand,” Twilight says in a rush. “Your jaw was fractured in three places and you had a skull fracture spanning at least three inches in-why are you smiling?”

You’d forgotten how she switched to scientist-mode whenever she was feeling a little scared. It had annoyed you once but now, after all this, it’s downright endearing and you are just so happy to be hearing her ramble on again. How much had you changed in such short a time?

“Come now Twilight Sparkle, let Anon answer,” Celestia urges.

You try to sit up a little bit, but your limbs still feel far away from the rest of your body and it’s difficult to stay upright very long under your own power.

“M-maybe I could use a little more help?” you admit.

Celestia nods and lowers her horn over you. Golden light showers your body and you feel yourself rise from the ground. You slowly rotate in the air till you’re hovering, your feet dangling free. You let your head fall back, eyes closed, bathed in a tingly, warm sensation that courses through every one of your systems in some unique way. You sigh, and as you breathe out, it’s like all the remaining pain and tension goes with it. Twilight’s magic never felt like this. You feel the sensation dissipating as you come down towards the earth again. The glow vanishes as you touch down and you open your eyes.

“Better?” Celestia asks.

You nod. You mean it too, you feel no trace of your injuries or even any fatigue anymore. You're better than you have been in days, maybe weeks!

“Good. Then Anon, would you please kneel? I have a matter I must address, and this is customary.”

You blink dumbly at her, then glance to Twilight for confirmation. She nods her approval, grinning proudly. Are you being knighted? Honored in some other special way? Slowly, you sink to one knee and lower your head in reverence.

“Anon,” she says in a loud, official sounding voice. “As leader of this realm and given what I have just witnessed,…”

She pauses, like there’s a catch in her throat or like she doesn’t want to continue speaking. You think maybe she’s just getting choked up. But no…that’s not it. She’s reluctant, uncomfortable even. You didn’t know the process could even be uncomfortable. She says the next part very haltingly, like the words themselves are painful in her mouth.

“I find you have broken a rule of this land by committing the crime of…murder. I have no choice now but to…exile you from this world.”

Your head snaps up and you feel color drain from your cheeks.

Murder? Exiled? Oh god, what is she saying…

"Your majesty," you say a little uncertainly. "Maybe there's some mistake, I-"

"I'm sorry," she says, and you can hear that she means it. "I truly am sorry Anon. But you have sullied this place with your act of merciless violence, just as that other man had done. It is a crime, though to be perfectly hones, an understandable one given the circumstances. Still, you cannot call this place home as long as you carry that evil deed within you, as long as you are a murderer.”

You hear Twilight cry out with anger and pain from behind you, and in a flash she dashes between you and Celestia.

“Princess, what are you talking about?” she shouts, sounding both confused and infuriated. “Anon was just defending himself, defending all of us! He'a not evil or a murderer! He-"

Celestia slowly shakes her head, sadness now the prevailing expression on her face. She looks at Twilight and speaks gently, her voice tinged with regret but firm. A teacher giving her pupil one more lesson.

“I’m sorry to you as well my student, but this place has known evil now. And Anon may not have brought it here, but he gave it strength. It has known death, blood, pain, loss. Anon created more of it just moments ago. While one of the causes is gone,” she glances uncomfortably to a dirt mound a few yards off that you can only assume is the buried man, then back at Twilight. “The other stands behind you now. All of it must go from this land, even though it pains me to do so. I wish this was not the way but-”

"Then make it a different way!”

Celestia sighs.

“Life doesn't work like that. The rules are very clear, and I must protect my realm. This is my only recourse to fully do so.”

“That’s not fair!” Twilight shouts. “He isn’t evil, he isn’t bad! He’s done nothing but try to help all of us and now you’re punishing him for it!”

“Twilight...”

“I won’t let you touch him! I won’t let you send him away, your ruling is…is wrong! He’s not a muderer!”

You’re struck by the sheer magnitude of what Twilight is saying. She’s standing up to her princess, her mentor, perhaps even some form of god, all for your sake. She’s challenging royal and divine rule for you, and asking for rules to be broken. Her. Wanting to break the rules. Before today, you doubt she would have even raised her voice in Celestia's presence. She’s done so much for you in your time here.

"You did this before too! Anyone who upsets you has to go away," Twilight continues to shout. "You banished Luna, and she wasn't evil, was she? You're anything but fair, you just want things to go your way and if they don't-"

“Twilight Sparkle, be still and listen!” Celestia says firmly. You can see that she's hurt by Twilight's words, but is doing her best to retain her royal demeanor. “There is yet more I have to say.”

Twilight opens her mouth to say something else, but now it is your turn to silence her. You don't want to go, and you don't think this is right any more than she does, but Celestia deserves to have her say on things. It’s her right, isn’t it? You rest a hand on Twilight's back and she turns to face you with a jump, like she had forgotten you were there. You shake your head and she closes her mouth. Fresh tears have sprung to life in the corners of her eyes, and one trickles downwards as she turns back towards her teacher.

Celestia now looks to you, her expression apologetic.

“Anon, I still do owe you a debt of gratitude though. You now know what this place is to you?”

You hesitate, then nod.

“Yes. This is my heaven.”

“It is,” Celestia says. “And you earned it in life. I feel now that your actions, though fueled by hatred, were for a good cause. I am reluctant to punish that, even if I must abide by these rules. You didn’t so much abuse this gift of heaven as just forget yourself for a moment. Rather than cast you into some other place or close off your thoughts into oblivion, I would rather give you a chance to pay for what you have done. A way to pay your debts, if you are willing.”

“What must I do?” you ask without hesitation.

You’ll do anything to stay here. You’re not sorry you killed that man, lord knows it felt good to finally do it. But you love Twilight and you love Equestria. You’ll do whatever she asks of you. She seems reluctant to speak, but at last she nods and continues.

“Anon, I will exile you back to your world and time, back to your old life.”

Twilight gasps again, but Celestia goes on before she can interrupt.

“You will finish out your normal existence there, you will remember this place, and if you prove yourself worthy yet again you may return here. You must re-earn this heaven, but it will not remain gone to you forever.”

She averts her eyes from you and you see an expression there you didn't know princesses could have. Shame? Guilt? Twilight ignores this and approaches her again, stance like one ready for battle.

“That's not enough! How do you know that ten years form now, fifty years from now, this place will still be all he wants in an afterlife?” Twilight demands, her tears audible in her voice. “He’ll suffer there in his world, the world could change him he-"

“I’ll do it.”

You hardly recognize your own voice. Twilight and Celestia turn to you, Celestia with a look of pity, Twilight with a look of horror.

“What?” she demands.

You stand up and raise your chin, trying to look as professional and dignified as you can.

“I’ll do it,” you say, more confidently this time. “You’re right, I did kill that man, and I’m not sorry for it. But I understand, this is not a place for hatred and violence. My being here means that the violence will still be here, would still exist in me. Maybe...maybe through a human lifetime I can let that hatred go. Then I can come back without causing further harm to this place.”

“Anon, no.” Twilight whispers.

"There are rules, Twilight," you say gently without looking at her. "You, better than anyone, know that rules have to be followed. For the sake of Equestria, and for you.”

She turns her face away, gritting her teeth, and dashes away to another corner of the clearing. You feel a sharp tug in your chest, knowing how much this will hurt her. But you also somehow know this is for the best.

“So be it,” Celestia says with a nod. “I will send you back to the moment you died, none of your time will be lost.”

You glance back over your shoulder to where Twilight is sitting alone.

“May I say goodbye to everyone first?” you ask.

Celestia pauses, then shakes her head sadly again.

“I am sorry Anon, but this must be done right away.” She pauses. “You may have a few minutes with Twilight Sparkle. I sense that you two have grown very close over the past few days’ events, and this will be hardest on her.”

“Thank you,” you murmur, giving her a little bow.

She stares at you with admiration in her eyes along with the pity and sadness of earlier.

"You are noble, Anon," she says quietly. "And you do not deserve such a harsh punishment."

She bows back and then steps way towards the tree line to give the two of you some shred of privacy. You turn your full attention to Twilight, knowing that this may be the last time you see her in a very long while. You approach her, and she stands and turns as she hears you. She's smiling a crooked smile, the kind you smile you give when you're hanging onto a hope you know is not really there. She shakes her head at you, tears now cascading freely down her cheeks.

“I won’t let you,” she says. “You already ran away from me once to save me, I won’t let you do it again.”

“Twilight.”

“There has to be another solution, something else we can do, this isn’t right!”

“Twilight.”

“I-I’ll start hating things too, I’ll get the others and we’ll use the elements of harmony. We’ll tell Celestia that we-"

“Twilight, stop.”

“No,” she says, voice unstable and rambling. “Because I’ve never felt like this about anyone before and I’m not going to let you slip away from me, not after we fought so hard, not after we...we...”

Without another word, you kneel and pull Twilight to you. She wraps her front legs around your neck, holding you tightly, and presses her muzzle into your shoulder. You can hear heartbreaking sobs emanating from her and feel her trembling all over. You hold her tightly, cradling the back of her head with one of your palms.

“It’ll be ok,” you say, and you can hear a tremble in your own voice as well. “I’ll be back. How could I not be back? I have you to come home to, that’s worth living a good life. It's only a little while that we'll be apart, it's hardly the end of the world.”

“But what if-"

“There’s no what ifs,” you tell her. “I’ll come back to you, I promise.”

She pulls back from you just enough to look into your face. She studies your eyes, your wry smile, your honest expression. You can see she wants to believe you, but ever the skeptic, she wants proof.

“But you could fall in love with someone else.”

“In a full lifetime? I probably will. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop loving you or forget about you. I’ll still want to be with you here.”

“How can you know that. I understand, you deserve love, but how can you know you’ll still…want me.”

“I just do.”

“But Anon…”

“I promise,” you say again.

She raises her head and your lips meet. You press a hand to her cheek and kiss her back deeply, trying to show her just how honest your promise is. You close your eyes and again memorize every scent, every taste, every sensation, as the last you will have in this world. At least for a while.

It feels like your kiss goes on forever, but when you break away it still seems too soon. You stand and silently step back from Twilight. She steps away too, still shaking with occasional sobs.

“You...you’ll tell the others goodbye for me? And thank them for everything?” you ask.

She nods.

“We’ll all miss you,” she says. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, but it's only bye for now. I'll be here again before you know it.”

Celestia approaches you and Twilight turns away, unable to look at you any longer. You can see the pain in her face and tell yourself to remember that kiss as a memory of Twilight to hold onto. Not that pain you're causing her now.

“Ready?” Celestia asks you.

“Yes,” you say. Then, a thought occurs to you. “Your majesty?”

“Yes Anon?”

You try to find the right words to ask what’s troubling you.

“This...this place was my heaven.”

“That’s correct.”

“And it was also his hell.”

“That’s correct too.”

You pause again, still thinking it through.

“Others can come here, can’t they?” you say at last. “Other people who believe this could be their perfect world. Other people who find this place absolute hell.”

“Yes, though it is unlikely and will be a very rare occurrence. Maybe once every millennia.”

“What will happen,” you ask. “When others show up? What if more people arrive that want to destroy this land, fill it with more hatred, evil?”

“My dear Anon,” Celestia says with a smile, touched by your concern. “We have now seen what exists in the very worst of men...and what exists in the very best of them too.”

You feel yourself blush involuntarily at the implied compliment.

“With what we have learned, I think we are ready now. Others will come eventually, thought scarce few. They will bring with them so many things, both good and bad. But after this, we now know how to proceed with them.” She nods. “Because of you, Anon, when they come, we’ll be ready.”

You let out a sigh, surprised by how comforting her words are. Then you force out another smile, for her benefit and for your own.

“I’m ready,” you say. “And I’ll be back soon enough.”

"Thank you for all you have done, Anon," she says. "I look forward to your return."

Celestia lowers her head and her horn begins to glow. Golden light again surrounds you, and you rise from the ground. You begin to tingle all over and rotate very slowly. You feel lighter than air, like you’re separating into a fine mist in the most glorious of ways. It’s not painful or uncomfortable, just a gentle, slow, pulling apart of all your molecules. It’s almost like a release.
Twilight has turned to watch again, crying unabashedly now. She looks up at you with shimmering wet eyes.

“I love you Anon!” she calls. “I love you!”

She calls it over and over again, the words fighting through Celestia’s golden magic and mixing with every bit of your form. You feel her love streaming through your veins like blood. Looking up into the crisp blue sky, you close your eyes and take in one more breath of fresh Equestrian air for your journey. You spread your arms and legs wide, separating even your fingers and toes as you spin. It’s like flying, a gentle flight up into the sky and beyond.

You feel yourself coming undone and suddenly the world slips away. As you breathe out that last breath of air, the rest of you comes out with it, as does all of Equestria. You blend, separate, and dissipate.

Your heaven is gone, and so are you.

The next breath you take in is air that you have not tasted into a very great while. But its taste is still familiar somehow. Like a flowered perfume that has haunted you for far too long…

-Epilogue-

In a ditch by the hiking trail, under the beating afternoon sun, you begin to regain consciousness. You breathe sharply in this stale air of earth. It tastes like grime, like dust, like unpleasant things that you forgot existed. But there’s something else lingering there too. A taste of flowers, sweet sugar, perfume.

You know that smell. You’ve smelled it so many times before. Whenever you began to lose grip on reality, whenever you began to slip away, you smelled that. It was a comfort to you when you needed it. But never till now did you truly recognize just how familiar it was. You have known this smell for years, you have lived with it, grown up with it.

How do you know this smell?

You strain to open your eyes, to see this life you’d left behind once more. Although you can't see yet, you're beginning to recognize this place and remember what event you just plopped back into. You're up in the hills on a hiking trail. There's a ditch by the trail, a small ravine, and you'd just fallen head first into it. The fall had killed you, of course, but now you're back. Your head does hurt a little, but you've known real pain now and this is nothing by comparison. Right now, you're lying on your back with your head propped up on something soft and...someone is touching your head with some cloth. You're probably bleeding, considering the fall and-

Someone is touching your head? Someone...

And then you remember who you were jogging with.

It's Miranda.

She's that girl you'd lusted after for so many years, grown up with, fooled around just that once at a party. The girl who had spurned your advances with the "let's just be friends" line. It all somehow hurts less now that you've fallen for Twilight, and you're also suddenly overjoyed to see her again. You can't help but smile.

"I can see you're felling better," you hear her say with a giggle.

Her voice is twofold familiar. It's both Miranda's and...someone else’s.

Your eyes at last begin to open, and the sun nearly blinds you with how bright and harsh it is. You raise a hand to shade your eyes as the human world comes into focus all around you.
Sitting over you is a silhouetted female frame. Her red-blond hair is accented by one neon pink streak that has pulled free of the messy bun she usually wears for jogging. Her freckles are darker in the sunlight but still only barely show across the bridge of her nose. Her skin is far too light to be out in this bright sun, and her shoulders are beginning to get a little pink as she sits there caring for you. Her green eyes...

Her eyes.

Those eyes.

You gasp in surprise as everything begins to fit into place. Those were the eyes that watched over you as you lay injured in the glen. Those were the eyes that held such affection as you sidestepped blow after blow from that cop. Full of laughter, innocence, affection, and now amusement as she watches you figure out who she is.

"Miranda?" you ask, and she nods.

“..and?”

"...Marigold?"

Her smile broadens and she nods slowly.

"Yes."

Her perfume, that perfume you smelled on her all her life, is the same wafting scent from Marigold's mane. Even her expressions are the same, you now realize. You stare up at her, dumbfounded.

"So you're back then?" she murmurs. "You've been to Equestria, saved everyone, and come back?"

"Oh...yeah," you say, still trying to wrap your head around things. "And you're..."

“Magic Marigold, in the flesh, though it's Miranda now. I was glad they let me stick with an M name."

You continue to stare up at her in shock and silence, and seeing your expression she continues so that you have time to let it all sink in.

"You know, my cutie mark used to be flowers, a magic wand, and a top hat. I was always awesome at slight of hand," she says, grinning. Then she takes an index finger, loops it trough the air once, and rests it on the tip of her nose. "Presto chango! I am now a human! I really should get that mark as a tattoo somewhere, don’t you think.”

She chuckles nervously at her own joke, and you can suddenly see how agitated she is. Miranda always makes jokes when she’s uncomfortable…and come to think of it, Marigold probably did too.

"H-how?" you stutter.

She giggles again, and you're shocked you didn't notice before how similar their laughs were, how similar they both were.

"Well I had earned my heaven," she says. "And I had a choice of anything I wanted."

She blushes, the cutest damn blush you think you've ever seen, and glances away from you shyly.

"I told you once that I wished things had been different. I wished I could have known you before, been the same age as you, been able to grow up with you. And, well, there was one way to do that."

"So...so you've known. All this time?"

She rolls her eyes and let's out a sigh.

"You have absolutely no idea how hard it was not to spill the secret a few times," she says. “But as much as I loved you as you were, you weren't MY Anon yet. You hadn't met me, hadn't seen Equestria. So I wanted to wait for you to get there too before I told you or got too close to you."

"Is...is that why-"

"The party, yeah," she nods, looking even more embarrassed. "And I thought cider had a kick to it! Earth alcohol is far more powerful, that's for sure."

You shake your head and look up into her smiling green eyes.

"But here?" you ask. "Earth? This is your heaven?"

She hesitates, then shakes her head sheepishly.

"No, being able to know you, your world, share this life with you...that's my heaven."

You reach up and clasp her cheek in a gentle caress.

"You saved my life," you say, still feeling shock but now gratitude and awe as well. “More than once I think. What can I do to repay you? You're a god damned guardian angel, you know that?"

She shrugs and looks down.

"I did what I had to."

Then, hesitantly, she puts a hand up and holds your in place for a moment. Her face loses its smile and she gazes into your eyes affectionately and a little sadly.

"Look," she says. "I know you and Twilight are...you know...involved? And I'm not trying to mess with that. You fell for me out of puppy love back before you went to Equestria, I get it. Coming back, you've known the real deal, and I get that too. But I do want you to know that I'll be here for you in this world, till you earn your heaven back. I’ll help. And…I want you to know..."

She fidgets uncomfortably under your head and you prop yourself up on one elbow to look at her better. She seems shy again, and her blush has deepened. You find yourself grinning despite yourself. You know what she's going to say now. You've been waiting to hear her say it since you were twelve years old.

"I...I love you Anon. I did before and I still do."

You smile warmly at her, and through her freckles, pale skin, pink-tinged hair, you see a small pink pony sitting on a hillside and naming the constellations with you. Through Miranda, you see Marigold.

Very slowly, you slip your arms around her neck and pull her into a tight hug. Her smell whirls around you dizzyingly as she draws her arms around you too and squeezes back. You pull your head back just enough that you can press your mouth against hers, and you give her a light, simple, pecked kiss that she returns with one of her own.

"You have Twilight waiting for you," Miranda says, more a fact than an actual protest.

You kiss her again and your lips linger over hers a little longer this time. Then you move so your mouth is right next to her ear, and you feel her breathe in a little gasp of surprise and happiness.

"This is your heaven," you whisper. "And I have a whole lifetime to live in it before I go back. Twilight knows I’ll love others, we’ll wait for each other. But you need company. We both do.”

She's the one to kiss you now, deeply, forcefully, and you can feel all her years of patiently waiting for you to turn into the Anon she knew in Equestria. She breaks away, now grinning her usual cocky grin and stands up. She gives you a hand and pulls you to your feet, and you're sure the dizziness in your head is from her rather than your fall. She nods back towards the trail.

"Feel up to running?"

You shrug. It's been a while since you've run, you suppose. Well, at least in this world.

"Sure, why not?"

"Good, because we haven't finished that race yet!"

With a cackle she speeds off towards the trail in quick loping strides over the stones and grass. You find yourself grinning to as you clumsily sprint after her.

Equestria is behind you now, but in front of you too. You'll have to work to get back, and you are already missing Twilight and know she'll be the perfect motivator. After all, you have a promise to keep. Still, as you run across the grass behind Miranda, watching her hair bob with each step, you can't help the feeling that this won't be so bad.

It may not be your heaven, but it is someone's heaven, Marigold's heaven. And it's up to you to show her how heavenly it can truly be.

-The End-

Author's Note

At last, my friends, we come to the end.

This alternate ending may seem a bit of a shock, may even make you a little angry. But please keep in mind that this isn't actually completely out of the blue. even though this wasn't the ending I went with, it was still one I left a trail of breadcrumbs too. I may also have a soft spot for Marigold, so I had to give her a happy ending too.

I made a lot of mistakes in writing this whole thing, and I could write a very long note telling you each and every one (and how not to make these mistakes yourself.) But I think nearly 50K words is a bit of an accomplishment, so I'm at least content in that.

By the way, the cop's name is Mitch. Yes. I know I never wrote that anywhere, so figured I'd say that now. Why not, right?

Anyway, it is my birthday as I write this, and I can think of no better way or time to send off this story. Here's to me never having to work on it again, and here's to you who read it all with me.
Cheers.

Thanks for sticking with it, and I'll see you soon in something less serious.

-Pencil