Author's Note
This story was a challenge sorta thingy I did with my friend Flutterpriest where the only guidelines were to use Anon and the mane six. So, this is what I made from that.
Also, this story has a massive amount of perspective changes for its length. I have tried to indicate them by putting a couple dashes at where the perspective changes, coloring them based on what character it is switching to. Light purple for Twilight, dark purple for Rarity, yellow for Fluttershy, orange for Applejack, blue for Rainbow Dash, pink for Pinkie, and green for Anon. If this gets too confusing, say so in the comments and I will change it to be more understandable.
Rainbow Catastrophe
You yawn a bit as you feed the birds their breakfast.
Ponyville sure has been peacefully quiet lately. No giant monsters or evil beings to deal with makes everything lovely.
You smile to the birds that chomp at their meal, giving them a little advice, "Be careful not to eat too quickly."
They nod to you as they peck away, and you turn around to see which of your animal companions needs food next.
While there might not be any monsters or evil around right now, there's something bothering you. Something that's putting an intense fire in your heart and groin. It's crazy to think that it's almost been three years since he crash landed here. Coming out of the sky like a chunk of something from space was a sure-fire way to get everyone's attention. Especially landing in the middle of the town...
Once everyone realized he was injured and not here to hurt us, they rushed for his aid. He stayed in your cottage for a while since you had extra space. He's such a sweetheart, almost challenging your own kindness if not for some of his blunt mannerisms.
But, that's what just makes him who he is... And you wouldn't want him any other way. The only bad thing is that you aren't the only one who sees him like that.
You blink involuntarily and take yourself out of your day dream to see the one you were talking about almost ten feet in front of you. Anonymous. He's standing there talking with Twilight, actually looking really happy. You feel a crack form in your chest as you think about things.
What if he likes her more?
He looks so happy to even just be talking to her. A bit happier than he normally looks while talking to others. He... He couldn't like her more, could he? As you think about this while staring at him, he reaches down and pets Twilight's head a little.
Oh no. He does.
You feel your heart starting to tear inside of your chest.
He likes her more than you. Now you'll never be with him...
But, wait. Why does he like her more? Is it the way she presents herself? Is it her "dorkish" charm?
A spark of determination ignites in your chest.
Well that doesn't seem too hard to pull off. If that's what Anon wants in a mare, you're sure you can do it better for him! Oh, but this isn't to hurt Twilight...
You proudly walk back over to the house to practice being a book worm like Twilight, ignoring the angry white bunny with the gurgling stomach at your side.
You find yourself blushing as Anon pats you on the head lightly.
Hopefully Fluttershy didn't see anything, the two of you are pretty close to her place. The last thing you want to do is cause a gap in your friendship.
You look up at the smiling human holding his wallet and he says, "Seriously, thank you for finding this for me. I was so freaked out when I found out I misplaced it."
An awkward smile-blush combo comes across your face as you respond, "Y-you don't have to thank me! Spike was the one who found it in the library..."
He smiles again and places his hand on you while walking past you, making his hand drag along your back. Once he's past you he turns back and says, "But you're the one who returned it to me instead of having Spike do it."
Your heart feels warm at the sound of his words. You turn around and start to walk with him.
"Well of course, if it's for such a good friend like you I would do anything..."
He looks at you and raises an eyebrow a little in confusion. Sweat forms extremely quickly on your head.
OH NO. DID YOU COME ON TOO STRONG? MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID ANYTHING. ANYTHING IS A LOT OF THINGS. IN FACT, THAT'S ALL THE THINGS. EVEN THE LEWD THINGS.
"Aww that's sweet, Twilight. You don't have to do those things though, ya know?"
Phew.
"O-oh..."
It is silent as you two walk for a while into town. You take this opportunity to try to get as close as possible to him without him getting uncomfortable.
The warmth from his body is making you anxious to jump on him and confess to him... And his scent. Unf.
He looks down at you and you jump away in terror that he'll know what you're up to.
He is shocked by your sudden movement, and asks, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
CRAP. THINK. THINK QUICKLY. HE'S GOING TO THINK YOU'RE AFRAID OF HIM. NO ONE WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH SOMEONE AFRAID OF THEM. UNLESS THEY'RE SADISTIC. BUT ANON DOESN'T SEEM SADISTIC. Not that it would be a bad thing if he was though...
His voice takes you out of your mental freak out and possible fetish gain, "Oh, good call, Twilight!"
"Huh?"
You look to where he's looking and see a small pile of feces probably left behind by some animal right in front of him.
"That's a bit of a wild reaction, but if ya didn't do that I would have had this on my shoe. Thanks."
Taking a deep breath and composing yourself, you nod to Anon, "You're welcome."
He nods back while wearing a smile in response, then continues walking forward without stepping on it.
Good gravy. That was really close. You should be more careful with your actions now. He could suspect something more easily.
"Hey Nonny!"
You finally focus on something other than Anon and realize you've followed him into the middle of town. Pinkie is waving to him from SugarCube Corner.
He waves and shouts back, "Hi Pinkie!"
He jogs over and she leaps from the entrance into his arms.
This is sort of a normal greeting for them, hugs like this, but it still hurts you to watch.
He spins around while hugging her and the both of them laugh at the act.
If only you could make him smile and laugh like that. How does Pinkie do it? Well, that's in her element. But the basic idea doesn't seem too difficult to perform. And you probably have a bunch of books on comedy, so that might work too.
He stops spinning with her and places her down, asking, "So how are ya, Pinkie?"
She beams up at him, and replies, "I'm great now that I've had my torNondoe hug!"
He smiles at her joke and messes up her mane with his hand.
"Your puns are awful as always."
Her mane poofs back into it's normal bumpy shape and they both laugh.
Yes... This doesn't seem that hard at all. You should be able to learn this by tonight and be able to act on it tomorrow. But that's only if you start now.
Clearing your throat to get Anon's attention, you speak, "Hi Pinkie. Sorry Anon, but I have to get going now. I forgot I had to do something back home."
Anon smiles, "Don't worry about it. Go take care of it, and be safe!"
He was so eager to discard you... You're really going to have to work at it!
"Bye..."
You gallop back toward the tree to begin your intense study session.
Twilight sure is being a weirdo right now. Why'd she run off like that? Can't she teleport? Oh whatever, Nonny's here!
"Hey Nonny, could I ask a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Try this and tell me how it tastes!"
You shove a cupcake chunk into his mouth with your hoof. He nearly chokes on it in surprise, but when he starts to eat it, his eyes light up and a smile appears on his face again.
After swallowing his tiny piece, he says, "Wow, this is great! What is this?"
"I KNOOOW RIGHT? I call it, Bubblegum Blueberry Button!"
His expression changes to a confused one immediately as he asks, "...why?"
You jump up and grab him by the shoulders.
"C'mere!"
He doesn't try to resist as you speed him into SugarCube Corner's kitchen.
He looks at the display you've created for the cupcakes in awe. "Oh wow."
You point to the blue button shaped cupcake with pink swirls all around it. "See?"
He nods and looks to the pink, purple, and green swirled one next to it. He points at it as he asks, "What is that?"
"It's a mixed flavor cupcake. Try it and tell me if you can tell what flavors!"
Shrugging, he picks it up and pops it into his mouth.
While chewing, he speaks, "Well one of theesh ith defflitey grape..."
Excitedly, you practically shout back him, "Yup! Can you guess what the other two are?"
You wait in anticipation as he chomps away, only to be let down when he shakes his head and shrugs.
He swallows and says, "I have no idea. Sorry."
"Oh come on Nonny. It's grape, powdered protein, and honey!"
He gives you a deadpan stare. "What."
You giggle at him and respond, "You always look so funny when you're like that! It's not really that. It really was just grape."
He stands up, chuckling to himself lightly. "You got me again with the same trick. I'll get you back one day though."
Slightly tilt your head to him and ask, "Why are you getting up? Are you leaving already?"
He nods and barely explains, "Yeah, sorry. I have to pick something up."
"Oh okay. No, I'm sorry. I bothered you without asking if you had plans."
He shakes his head and puts a hand on your head, "No need for that, Pinks."
Your face gets hot as he runs his hand through your mane.
Why does he always do this to you? You want to make him happy and laugh, but he makes you super duper gooey and mushy like an under-cooked cupcake. It's a good feeling but it's also hard to ignore... It gets hard to be happy and make others happy when he makes you think like that and feel that way.
He walks past you and leaves the kitchen.
You walk out of the kitchen with him, waving him off, "B-bye."
He raises a hand as he walks out, shouting to you while doing so, "See ya tomorrow!"
You watch him leave SugarCube Corner from the counter and mumble to yourself, "Yeah..."
Wait. Where is he going? It's not like him to leave you so suddenly, even if he has plans. Is something serious going on? ...this calls for a stealth mission.
You quickly put on your super stretchy black suit Twilight got you that one time and sneak out SugarCube Corner. When you step out of SugarCube Corner, you see Nonny walking down the street. He's right in the middle of the street, making it kinda hard to tail him with complete stealth. So, you do the next best thing. Jump into a bush.
From that bush, you jump to another bush in another yard adjacent to that one. By continuing your pattern of stealth, you manage to get closer to him without him noticing a thing.
The same can't be said about those poor bushes and trashcans you forced yourself inside. Or the ponies you hid behind. Or the ground you dug through... It was all worth it though!
You're at Rarity's place now, so you duck behind a tree nearby. Nonny walks right up to the door and knocks a few times. The door opens and Rarity speaks to Nonny, the both of them giggling a bit before she invites him inside. She closes the door behind her, ending your chances of getting in unnoticed.
Looks like this mission was a success...for stealth. For finding out what's going on though, you failed. What was with the way they talked at the door? Something seemed weird about that. It was almost like they're a couple or something. But... Nonny can't be... He's your Nonny. Why does this hurt to think about? They laughed about something. Nonny laughs like that when he's with you...
You find yourself leaning up against the tree while crossing your hooves.
Hmph.
"What makes Rarity so good anyways?"
You look over at her super fabbed out pad and dresses in the window.
Does he just like how she behaves? Acting all uppity isn't a hard thing to do, so why not find out? Wait. She's more than uppity, she's also an eloquent speaker.
"Psheew this may be harder than I thought."
You leer over at Carousel Boutique and wave a hoof while screaming, "I'LL GET YOU BACK, NONNY!"
After shouting out the anger, you happily bounce away while humming a tune.
You scan the room as you speak, "They should be around here somewhere..."
"I'm sorry."
You shake your head and respond as you look for wipes of some kind, "No need to apologize, Anonymous. I enjoy doing things like this."
Finding them, you let out a sigh of relief, "Ahh, here we are."
He sits down on your couch as you levitate the box of wipes over to him, taking one out. Using your magic, you skillfully remove all the icing from his face. A smile comes across yours.
"You know, I wasn't expecting to see that the first time I open the door today."
He smirks a bit and looks down, "Yeah. Pinkie surprised me with some cupcakes, so I had no choice but to stop to try a few."
You finish up wiping his mouth off and put the box of wipes on the couch in front of you.
Then, you lecture him a little, "Anonymous, you know you don't have to do what she or anypony else says, right?"
He shakes his head, "That's not true. I want to help them and be good friends with them, that's why I do it."
He's such a kind gentleman...
"Well... I suppose if that's your reasoning it's okay, but make sure none of them take advantage of you, okay dear?"
"Of course."
Your eyes lock as he says this. It's then when you realize how close you are to him. The two of you are on the couch, and you're facing him with only the box of wipes blocking you from touching each other. You become flushed in the face as he blinks at you.
He has such beautiful eyelashes for a male. And... a strong jawline.
His words break your concentration, "So, do you have my jacket ready?"
You stumble over your words as you see that you've just been staring at his face, "Y-your jacket? Um... Oh, yes, your jacket! Sorry, dear. Yes, I'll go get it."
Turning quickly to hide your rapidly growing blush, you rush over to the other side of the room.
Goodness gracious he makes you so flustered sometimes...
You walk over to where you have his patched up jacket hanging by coat hanger. Taking it with your magic, which you just realize now you could have done from across the room, you head back over.
Hopefully he doesn't consider that possibility. That could become a quite awkward situation.
He turns toward you as you come close and you avoid his gaze by looking at the jacket you're holding.
"Here you go, free of charge."
He accepts the jacket and puts it on, moving his arms to confirm if it's been fully restored. After confirming its restoration, he says, "You're the best, Rare."
You playfully paw at the air toward him, "Oh dearie, you shouldn't say that..."
He looks you straight in the eyes, "But I mean it. You're always so generous and kind to me and others. I mean, I kinda get that it's your element or something, but you make your entire life about it."
Is he actually talking about you like this? ...this is the perfect opportunity!
Excited to finally be able to say it, you shout out, "A-Anonymous!"
Startled by your volume, he asks in a worried tone, "What's wrong?"
You realize your mistake and cough, trying to compose yourself.
"Sorry. I apologize for the outburst. I was just a little excited to say something is all..."
He relaxes his stance a bit and scratches his head, "Oh. Okay. Well, what was it that you wanted to say?"
Well, now you can't. That completely ruined the mood. Oh well, on to the original plan.
You take a deep breath and point to a window. He turns and looks out it to see a small table with two chairs out there.
"Could you go wait out there for me? I want to share a cup of tea with you and talk."
"Okay."
He walks out without even questioning it.
Even though you just told him he shouldn't listen to others so easily... Oh, whatever! This isn't the time for that! You need to think about what you're going to say to him! It's not like you can just walk right out there and tell him to take you. Telling him you love him seems a bit too cliche though, so he might think it isn't genuine. Why is it always so hard to deal with things like this?
Okay, so doing it directly isn't a good idea... Perhaps you could do it in a cute way? ...but you have no idea how to do that.
You take a look at him through the window while making the tea with your magic. He seems to be talking to somepony and laughing.
"What?"
You follow the direction he's facing to see Rainbow Dash lazing off in a tree above him.
What is she doing there? It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was just supposed to be the two of you. Sitting at a small picnic style table underneath the gentle shade of trees... The perfect romantic afternoon setting. Ruined by Rainbow Dash. She's such a brute despite being a lady. Oh well, it's not like it matters.
The tea pot shrieks, signalling you to take it off the burner and pour it into cups. As you bring the cups to yourself with your magic, you glance back outside to see Rainbow now sitting in the seat you're supposed to be in. And Anonymous seems to absolutely love her company. You leer at her.
She's not good enough for him.
You glance at him as he actually slaps his knee while laughing. You pout a little in silence.
What's so fun about being with her of all ponies? The not-girly girl... Is... that what Anonymous' prefers in women? It would explain why he hasn't even considered you romantically yet. All it takes is to be a tough girl. A brute, huh?
You walk over to the door and poke your head out, attracting Anonymous' attention from Rainbow, "Anonymous, dear! I've forgotten that I have a few things that need to be tended to."
He smiles to you, "Oh, that's alright."
You levitate the tea cup out there to him and say, "You can have this though, since I promised. When you're finished, just leave it there darling."
He smiles and nods to you. A gesture one would give a 'friend'. You return it and head back inside, going upstairs to start taking notes on how to be a rough tomboy of sorts.
Anon looks away from Carousel Boutique and says to you, "That was a bit weird."
He then sips from the tea and exhales. He lifts the cup up to you.
"Want a taste, Bow?"
A taste of a drink after Anon's lips have been on it?
You fly down and take it out of his hands quickly, then stare at the spot where his lips were.
He recoils at your eagerness. "Jeez. What's your deal?"
Heat goes across your face as you realize you've just snatched it from him without saying anything.
"O-oh, my bad Anon. Just a bit um, thirsty from flying around all day."
In a faked nonchalant manner, you put your lips on where his were and pour the entire cup into your mouth.
Now, usually, you'd be able to tell how hot some liquid you're about to put into your mouth for consumption is. But in your mind, the thought of Anon's indirect kiss was a heavy distraction. A very heavy distraction.
You land immediately after drinking, spit out the near boiling water onto the ground, and cough.
Anon stands and moves toward you, leaning down to you as you cough, "God damn, you okay?"
You nod and take a deep breath, then berate Rarity's scalding drink, "Why would she give you something so hot to drink?"
"...Rainbow, it's tea. It's better when it's hot."
You look off to the side and feel your face get light again. "Oh, right. But it doesn't have to be that hot..."
He retorts, "And you didn't have to chug it. Why'd you do that?"
Quickly, you fly up so he can't see you blushing.
"I did it cause I was thirsty, like I said!"
"Uhh... okay."
You gulp and turn away, still blushing.
He was so close to you...
Anon coughs a bit as this conversation grows more awkward.
Darn, he's probably onto you. You'll just have to distract him.
You shout to him, "Hey, watch this!"
Before he can ask what he'll be watching, you rocket off into the sky. When you stop and look back, you see him holding his hand above his eyes so that he can watch you soar without the sun blinding him.
Up here you can be level headed and think straight. It's really only when you get close to him that your brain starts to fuzz out... But, you can't just ditch him like this.
After a little sigh at the fact that you can't just be normal and sit next to him, you plummet down toward the ground. Even as you go straight toward the planet rapidly, you try not to go too fast.
The last thing you want to do is make Anon worried.
Zooming down to the trees in front of him in a couple seconds, you use your gained momentum to fly around one of the trees. You manage to catch a glance at him as you speed around the tree. He looks amazed. The sight of his amusement is enough to excite you even more. Deciding to crank it up just a bit for your audience of one, you swirl around the second tree, then back to the first in a figure eight form.
This should be a decent speed to go, it makes it seem like you have rainbow trail. It probably looks super fast to Anon too. He always thinks so highly of you...
The image of him thinking so much about you and how amazing you are at flying with style and finesse somewhat distracts you. Because of your second slight distraction by Anon today, you don't realize you're slightly askew while flying. Your leg hits the trunk on one tree and you yell out as you spiral off in another direction.
Cold water near instantly greets you, and you slow to a halt in it.
Did you just crash into the lake?
You look around in the water and confirm that indeed you have. Swimming back up to the surface, you spit out the water that forced its way in your mouth. Anon is already right at the edge of the lake, completely out of breath. You look behind him at the trees at least half a kilometer away.
He ran all this way just for you?
He ignores his own pain and asks, "Are you okay?!"
You swim toward him until you get out of the water.
"Y-yeah, the water was a nice pillow for my crash."
He sits down so fast it almost looks like he fell. You go up and sit next to him.
He turns to you and rolls his eyes. "Ya scared the heck outta me..."
All you can do is hide your face from him by looking up and away. "Uh... sorry."
A bit more than a moment of silence passes. Anon lays all the way on his back and looks up.
"Do you ever sit down here and look at the clouds?"
You lay on your back with him and ask, "Whaddya mean?"
"I always see you relaxing on top of the clouds, but there isn't much to look at above you, is there?"
You shrug and speak, "I dunno. I never really thought about that. I guess another cloud higher than me would drift by sometimes."
He points to the cloud dotted sky to convey what he's saying, "So you've never sat down here and watched them move?"
"If I did that, I'd just fall asleep. Plus it's like my job to clear the sky of them."
He comes up with a solution almost instantly, "Well if that's the case, why not consider it like you're watching your prey?"
You gaze up at all the clouds slowly drifting in the direction of the light wind.
"Huh... This is kinda relaxing."
"Yeah."
As you lay there watching the clouds inch by, you look over at Anon. His eyes are closed, and his chest rises in a rhythmic pattern.
Is he asleep? This could be your chance!
You start to scoot up next to him when suddenly something appears above you. With a scream that makes Anon sit up, you jump away.
Applejack stands there next to Anon, and he immediately stands up. "Yes? Do you need something?"
Applejack shoots a quick glare to you and then looks back at Anon.
"I need yer help. Come with me."
She walks off toward Sweet Apple Acres and Anon quickly follows behind. Anon turns and waves to you, but you are too focused on Applejack to respond.
What the hay was that? Why did he leave so willingly like that? Are they... Dating? Why would Anon date her? What's so special about her?
You feel your pouty face coming on, so you fly up to the clouds so nopony can see you.
Ugh. All she does is act all country like and wear a hat.
You speak your thoughts aloud,"Anypony can do that."
Saying that out loud gives you an idea. You speed back to your house to begin practice.
Anon asks you as you walk, "AJ, talk to me, what's wrong?"
You keep your head facing forward so you don't look at him and lose concentration.
"Just need yer help gettin' Applebloom out of a tree."
He exhales deeply and in a more relaxed tone says, "Oh. Okay."
The silence between the two of you is almost painful as you trot along this dirt path.
Anon coughs as if he sees this as well and starts to make conversation, "Um, so... How have you been?"
Your face heats up rapidly, so you push your hat down to cover it.
"Been pretty fine, I s'pose. And yerself?"
"Today has been a little interesting, but besides that I'm pretty good. How's the family?"
You roll your eyes a little. "Pretty sure ya know how they are. Ya come around so often anyways."
Anon reaches up to scratch the back of his head while he chuckles. "Heheh, you think so?"
You nod and move a little closer to him.
He comes to visit you, obviously. That's why he spends so much time with you and Mac when he comes over.
"So, ya said today was a little interestin'?"
He nods and talks about it, "Yeah, I met up with each of your friends."
So that's what he was doing with Rainbow.
"Did ya have fun?"
He smiles down at you and happily says, "Of course I did! They're all wonderful."
Him saying that kinda hurts a little, so you fake the smile you're giving him and return to looking forward.
After a little more walking in silence, he breaks it with the beginning of a question, "Uh, Applejack..."
Did he notice what you just did? Is this gonna be like one of those romantic confessions Rarity always talks about?
He clears his throat a bit.
Oh boy. Here we go.
He looks down at you and continues, "Applejack..."
You meekly look up at him with the hat covering most of your face.
"Y-yeah Anon?"
"Shouldn't we be hurrying a bit more? Your sister is stuck in a tree."
The thought hits you like a sack of hot potatoes on a cold winter day.
"R-RIGHT!"
You take off to a gallop to hide your face a little.
Also to get to Applebloom a little bit quicker, but to be honest, you saw her being stuck as an excuse to get him. Probably coulda got her down yerself, but seein' Anon's strong body help her out of the tree is a sight you don't wanna miss.
Anon catches up to you with a sprint and the two of you zoom down to the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. You slow to a halt a few feet away from the dirt path to the farm.
Thankfully, Applebloom got stuck in a tree close to the entrance, so you didn't have to go too far. Well, not that you should be thankful she got stuck. Just the fact that she got stuck where she got stuck. That's confusin'.
She yelps from the tree as she starts to slip, "Help!"
She now clings to a branch upside down now, with her legs wrapped around it.
Anon walks toward her and puts his arms up while asking, "How did you even get up there?"
He grabs her by the sides and pulls her off the branch, then places her on the ground.
She explains herself, "I was tryin' ta find the perfect apple..."
Anon looks up at the apple tree and asks, "Why not just kick it like usual?"
Applebloom turns around and kicks the tree, sending all of the apples down around the two of them.
"When they hit the ground, they might bruise a little. I need tha most perfectest apple!"
Anon smiles and pats her head. "That's not a word. Now go off and don't climb any more trees. Oh, and say hey to your brother for me, will ya?"
She smiles brightly at him. "Okay Anon!"
She happily trots off down the dirt path to the barn.
It seems everypony likes being around Anon. Not just the mares. Him and Mac hang out a bunch. But it's almost like he doesn't see anypony like that...
As you ponder how Anon's mind works, something suddenly slams into his legs, taking him down. You approach to see Fluttershy underneath Anon, the two of them dazed. Anon quickly jumps up when realizing what happened, and helps Fluttershy to her hooves.
He kneels down so that he's face to face with her, and starts fixing her hair while he asks, "Are you alright?"
Fluttershy avoids his eyes.
She must have the same problem...
"U-um, I'm fine."
Anon shakes his head as he pats dirt off her fur. "You don't look it. What were you doing?"
Fluttershy bows her head as she apologizes, "I-I'm sorry! I was trying to get home quickly and I sorta... zoned out."
Anon smiles and rises to his feet, putting his hand on Fluttershy's extremely blushed head.
He turns to you with a smile and says, "I'm gonna go walk Fluttershy home now, okay?"
This all happened so fast, you don't know what to say. All you do is just nod. Anon and Fluttershy walk the direction she was flying and quickly disappear off into the distance. You begin to walk back to the barn, thinking to yourself.
Why did he go take her home like that? That usually means they're gonna bump rumps a bit. The thought of that makes you angry and flustered, so you shake it out. Why'd he want to take her home? It makes sense to be nice and all cause he hurt her with his body, but it was her fault for running into him... Well there's no need to get ahead of yourself. He could just be really nice. Or... What if he likes her like that?
How could he? She's so passive and quiet about things... Pssh, so quiet and passive that it's actually really dumb how simple it is. If he wants one of them girls, you reckon you could give that a shot. Heh, as if you needed a shot. Ya got this in the bag.
You wave goodbye to the yellow horse as she goes up the path to her house and yell, "See you tomorrow, Fluttershy!"
She waves back and disappears into her cottage. You sigh and turn around, the sunset making the sky a bright orange.
Speaking lightly to yourself, you say, "Today was a good day. Time to go home."
Thankfully your house isn't too far from Fluttershy's house. It's nowhere near as beautiful though. Just seems kinda...
You stand outside it and look at it.
Actually, it looks a lot like a shed.
You open the door and walk into the living room/bed room combo. In the corner is the small island declaring the beginning of the kitchen, and in the opposite corner is the door to the bathroom.
Cozy little home. Just like you were promised.
After you finish reminiscing for no apparent reason, you walk over to the futon still in bed mode. You kick off your shoes, take off your fixed jacket, place your wallet down on the table, clap the lights off, and go to sleep.
It was so sweet of Anon to take you home like that... Even though is was a bit embarrassing. You couldn't even act like Twilight like you were planning to! It's probably because he surprised you... But you won't let that happen tomorrow!
You lay down and close your eyes with a heart full of determination.
"I'm going to make him see me more."
You roll over in bed, thinking the plan through at least twelve times.
Anon is such a cutie when he thanks ponies...
Your heart melts a little when you remember how he put his fingers through your mane. To keep yourself composed though, you shake your head and smile.
Turns out there were way more party books than you thought here. Tomorrow is going to be a great day.
As you fall asleep, you say, "I'm going to get him to like me."
Gummy stares you in the face.
"I know! Like, how even?"
He blinks both eyes at different speeds.
"You what?! I think you need to get some sleep."
You put him down on the floor and sprawl out on your bed.
What were you doing a second ago? OH YEAH. THINKING ABOUT ANON. TOMORROW'S PISH POSH PINKIE DAY!
You giggle to yourself and get comfortable for bed.
"I'm gonna win him over for sure!"
Sweetie barges into your room and asks, "Rarity, have you seen my crayons?"
You take off your sleep mask and glare at her, speaking slowly and with anger, "Why would your crayons be in my room?"
She backs away a little, obviously a little scared. "N-nevermind..."
She leaves the room and you groan to yourself while putting the mask back on.
As if you didn't have enough to think about tonight. Only a little practice was had and it's truly impossible to not be good at being an absolute brute.
A smirk comes across your face as you lay there.
"Tomorrow, he's mine."
You look at yourself with the hat on in the mirror and laugh a little.
"This looks silly."
But if this is what Anon likes in a mare, you can be silly for as long as you're together.
Tank flies past you and lands on your bed. Taking off the hat and rope, you get on the bed.
This is it. Tomorrow is the big day.
You curl up with Tank.
"I won't lose to her."
You finish combing your hair so it's nice and long, then stop to admire the way it hangs back sort of majestically.
It doesn't make sense that he'd like Fluttershy for only her passiveness, so why not take the extra step?
You hang your hat up on the rack and lay down on your bed.
You've had a couple hours of practice at a normal tone of voice. Things should be just fine tomorrow.
Laying your head down on your pillow, you speak to yourself, "He won't be able to resist me."
You are sitting in a train car next to Spike and Sweetie Belle.
Spike laughs and turns to you, nudging you a little, "Right, Anon?"
Not entirely sure what's going on, you say, "Hm? What?"
Spike repeats himself, "Isn't what she said funny?"
"What did she say?"
He frowns at you. "Whaddya mean? You weren't listening?"
"Sorry. Guess I zoned out."
Spike looks at Sweetie Belle and asks, "Say it again, will ya?"
She giggles and nods. "Okay. So, two ponies walk into a bar. One pony looks to the other and says-"
Instead of saying something, she lets out the most ungodly screech and her head explodes into confetti. You start screaming and sit up, waking yourself from the nightmare. There's party decorations and confetti falling all over your living room and Twilight is at your feet on the bed, wearing some weird cake costume that cant hold her wings.
"Twilight?"
She responds way too cheerfully for a normal Twilight, "Hiya, Nonno!"
She teleports two feet away from herself to the love seat.
"Come on, get up so we can party!"
Still confused, you ask her, "What's this about?"
A party blower yells and smacks you in the ear, making you move away from it and get up.
Twilight bounces back onto the futon and shouts to you, "How about some music?!"
She moves a boombox out from under the futon and puts it on the table with her magic, then presses the button. A random assortment of high and low pitched versions of her saying the word party are played together. She shakes and juts out different parts of her body somewhat in tune with the parties being screamed out of that box.
Is this some kind of prank? Regardless, you don't have time for this.
Under the stealth of the loud "party" music, you sneak your shoes on and slip out the door.
Hopefully you don't smell too bad today. With that going on, there's not much time for a shower.
As you walk down the path from your house, you are tackled to the ground by something.
You turn and see Rarity with really weirdly styled hair. She nods slowly to you as you meet eyes.
She speaks in a low tone, "Sup."
"Uh, what?"
She stands up and ignores the dirt on her precious white fur, then speaks again like that,"My bad, bro. I was doing my daily sprints and didn't see you there."
You look behind you in the direction she came from. The only thing there is your house and the forest behind it.
Bringing your eyes back to her, you ask, "Are you feeling okay, Rarity?"
"Pfft. Am I feeling okay? Are you, Anon? What's up?"
You stand up and look down at her, starting to get annoyed. "Nothing. I'm fine."
She nods and says, "Cooool. So, wanna hang and go laugh about dumb brute things?"
"I'm leaving."
You turn and start walking away, and surprisingly, she doesn't follow. She just looks down.
What's wrong with those two today? They were just fine yesterday...
In no time at all, you find yourself right in front of SugarCube Corner. Peeking your head into the place, you see that it's not even open.
That doesn't make much sense. Pinkie always keeps it open when she's not busy. Oh well.
You turn away from the entrance to SugarCube Corner and immediately jump back from the pink pony standing in front of you.
"God, Pinkie! Don't scare me like that!"
You see that she's wearing what looks like a bunch of streamers taped together.
That seems pretty normal for her, so maybe there's no reason to worry that the other two might be related to this.
She then lifts her chin a little and talks with a pompous tone, "Apologies, Sweetfoot. I've had to close the place down for a little while as I am currently getting some things straightened out in my life."
...Sweetfoot? What even? Also, what is happening right now?!
"Pinkie, why do you sound more sophisticated than normal?"
"Why not, Sweetfoot? I simply adore this mannerism of speech, don't you?"
You start to back away from her while saying, "No. No I don't. Look, I gotta go."
Without hesitation, you take off running away from her.
This is bad. This might be more of a problem than you originally thought. Is this some kind of magic thing that did this to everyone? That's the only thing you don't know jack shit about in this place... What if it got all the way over to hi-
Before you can complete your thoughts, a rope wraps around your waist and pulls you into an alley. You slam against a dumpster and a hoof is pressed on your back, keeping you there.
A voice you don't recognize speaks from behind you, "Howdy, Anon."
You turn and see Rainbow wearing a dark blue cowboy hat. Looking down, you see the rope she threw was more of a mesh than a lasso...
She asks, "How ya feelin' this fine mornin'?"
Wiggling your way out of her terrible knots, you groan.
"I feel terrible. Everyone is really weird today and I don't know why!"
"I reckon ya just haven't found the right one yet."
"Wha-"
She quickly closes the distance between your faces and speaks almost right into your mouth, "But yer time might have just come."
You push her off yourself and stand up. Rushing out of the alley past her, you take off through town.
Something is seriously not right here. Is this some kind of virus that changes personalities? If it's a virus, it might be contagious.
You rush toward Sweet Apple Acres as fast as you can. After a few minutes of constant sprinting, you reach the small bridge and slow down a bit. Fluttershy is staring off the side of the bridge.
Okay, this will be the deciding point to see if everyone has been changed...
You approach her and greet her, "Hi, Fluttershy. How are you feeling?"
She turns to you a bit shocked and you see that she's wearing thick glasses.
In a slightly more confident tone than usual, she returns your greeting, "Hello Anon. How are you on this fine day?"
This is different, but it's not too bad. Hopefully.
You answer honestly, "I'm pretty bad actually. Everyone in town is acting really weird."
She seems to quirk up at this, asking more about it, "What's wrong with them?"
You take a seat on the edge of the bridge and somewhat explain, "They're not acting like themselves. It's like their personalities have all changed."
"Oh, so this could probably be the result of either a magical or physical ailment..."
It's starting to seem like Fluttershy's changed too.
She puts a hoof to her chin and looks away while thinking aloud, "If we could just get one of them to observe and learn from, I think we might be able to do some form of brain surgery to figure out just what's going on in those noggins."
Yep. Time to move on.
You stand up and continue walking to Sweet Apple Acres as Fluttershy looks away while thoughtfully talking to no one.
Just what in the world is going on?
Finally, after walking for at least twenty minutes, you reach Sweet Apple Acres. Wasting no time, you walk straight down the dirt path to the barn.
You have to find out...
As you're walking, you notice some long yellow hair poking out from behind a tree to your left. You stop and inspect the tree to find Applejack curled up there. She has no hat on and her hair is completely let down.
It's a lot longer than you thought it was...
Placing a hand on her makes her jump a little.
Afraid she might be injured, you ask, "Are you okay?"
She looks up at you through the mane covering her face and then looks down bashfully. "I-I'm fine..."
She's obviously not fine, but you guide her out of the shade from the trees to better examine her. She looks wonderful with her long mane and tail gracefully fluttering behind her in the tiny amount of breeze. There's no amount of scratches on her anywhere, so she's not physically injured, but something about her is really off.
You ask again, a bit more forceful this time, "What's wrong?"
She looks up at you and then meekly replies, "I-I said I'm f-fine. I'm sorry for making you worry."
You glare down at her. Applejack has never been this submissive before. It's actually really annoying.
Grabbing her hoof, you kneel down so that you're looking her in the eyes. "Tell me what's wrong."
She turns and moves her hoof out of your hand. "If I'm b-bothering you, I'll l-leave..."
She wanders back into the trees alone.
What? Why? This is so confusing. It's probably that stupid virus' fault.
You rush over to the barn and see Big Mac eating some pancakes on a bench.
"Hey Mac!"
He looks up as you run over and returns your greeting, "Howdy. Thought we were gettin' together later on?"
Thank goodness he's okay.
"Yeah well, I thought so too. But then these really weird things started happening in town with the girls..."
He stands up and asks, "The girls?"
You nod. "Yeah."
"Do you mean Fluttershy, Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow, and AJ?"
You blink a couple times in confusion. "How'd you know that?"
He points behind you and you see them all lined up just as he said them. "They followed ya here."
Shielding him with your arms, you shout, "Mac, get away! They have some kind of virus!"
He raises an eyebrow at you and argues, "What? They look normal tah me."
Are they?
You approach them, asking, "Are you guys normal now?"
They all nod and then look at each other as if they're confused.
Then they start to argue to themselves, but you speak louder than all of them to get their attention. "No. We're not doing this right now."
They stop and look at you. You point to Fluttershy.
"You speak first."
She nods and bows her head a little as she explains herself, "I just wanted you to pay more attention to me... like... romantically..."
She takes a deep breath and continues, "And I saw you with Twilight, so I thought you liked ponies like Twilight."
Twilight's eyes open as she pieces together what might have happened. Next, you point to her.
She speaks immediately, "Just like Fluttershy, I was desperate to get you to notice me as a possible partner in love. But, you and Pinkie were really physically affectionate unlike how you are with me..."
Dragging a hoof along the ground, she continues, "So I thought maybe I had to be like Pinkie."
Pinkie, still adorning her streamer outfit, speaks next without being told to, "That's SO weird! I feel the same way, cause Nonny left me to go be with Rarity."
She points to the outfit she has on. "So that's why I put on this thingy and totally pulled off a good Rarity impression."
Rarity gags at her outfit and retorts, "I highly doubt it was a good impression of me..."
Pinkie nods and backs up her claim, "Yeah it was! And I even came up with a cute nickname for him like you do with darling."
Rarity looks a tad bit intrigued now and asks, "And what exactly was this nickname?"
Pinkie practically shouts out, "Sweetfoot!"
All of them look at her like she's crazy.
"What? You're supposed to say something that you like to eat and then a body part, right? What was I gonna say? Sweet-heart?"
Everyone nods.
"Hearts aren't sweet, they're slimy and pumpy and ech! Feet can be sweet if they're in cake."
Everyone is annoyed. Even Big Mac.
She shouts out in her defense, "OH COME ON! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK TO COME UP WITH SWEETFOOT?! LIKE, FIVE MINUTES. FIVE WHOLE MINUTES!"
Rarity coughs, catching your attention from Pinkie's rambling. "Anonymous, truth be told, I was going to confess my feelings to you at that table outside of my boutique."
She shoots a glare to Rainbow on her left, "But somepony had to come in and mess with the fabrics of my thought process. Can you actually believe I thought you'd like a girl like that?"
Rainbow looks like she's ready to kick Rarity's teeth in, but solves it by talking. "Whatever. Anon doesn't like me and I can sorta accept that, unlike you. Anyway, it's kinda hard to be myself around you, Anon."
She blushes and tries to focus on your eyes only while she speaks, "It's not like a bad thing, but it's not good either. I feel so nervous I get kinda messed up and stuff. I dunno. Maybe I'm the weird one."
She points to the blue hat she still wears. "I saw you go along with Applejack without a problem, so I thought maybe the two of you were together... It made me mad, and I thought I could be a better AJ than AJ."
AJ sighs as she pushes her long hair out of her face. "Reckon it's mah turn then. Most of mah feelins I share with Rainbow here. The fuzzy feeling I get when I'm with you..."
She pushes the extremely long hair out of her face once again and tries to ignore it falling back while she speaks, "And when I saw ya take off with Fluttershy after she crashed into ya like that, it seemed like ya just weren't interested in me. She was better, so I tried to copy her."
They all look over at her astonishing mane, then all look up at you. You cross your arms and sigh.
"So, that's what all this was about?"
They nod at different times. With a shake of the head, you turn around and walk over to Big Mac.
Putting an arm around him, you smile to the girls.
"Sorry, but I'm taken!"
You share a small kiss with your lover, Big Mac.
All of their hopeful expressions shatter.
Rainbow flies up and screams, "WHAT?!"
Rarity faints onto a couch that definitely wasn't there a second ago. Twilight closes her eyes to process this new information. AJ looks disgusted, while Fluttershy simply sits down as if to stop herself from crying. Pinkie is standing there, her hair deflating and inflating rapidly like a woman's lungs while giving birth.
She keeps speaking to herself. "Celebrate? Go home. Celebrate? Go home."
Suddenly they all seem to snap and stop what they're doing. They look to each other and huddle around for a bit. You watch them in confusion for a bit, until they turn toward you, all nodding with determined faces.
Purple magic suddenly grabs you and starts to pull you toward them.
"MAC! MAC HELP ME!"
Big Mac just shrugs. "Ya shoulda told them when they got close to ya..."
You scream out just before the beat down begins, "NOOOO!"
