"Okay Anon settle yourself down, she's not on the porch or in the street so just unlock the door."
*Click*
The now unlocked door swung inwards and Anon bolted inside slamming it behind him.
Two Months Prior
Anon sat inside Sugarcube Corner staring vacantly out the window at the downpour the clouds had just unleashed. He was broken out of his bored stupor by Pinkies cheerful voice.
"Good Morning Anon! What can I get you?"
Anon stopped for a moment as if the question had taken him by surprise "Could I get a raspberry tart and a black coffee please Pinkie."
"Okey dokey!" She replied before dashing off into the kitchen.
Now that Anon was alone again he picked up a newspaper that somepony had left behind. "Workers Strikes Causing Havoc In Manechester" the headline read in bold black lettering with a picture of an angry looking group of workers below it. "Thank God I'm not there then." he thought to himself.
In the time between picking up the newspaper and reading the headline, Pinkie had returned with his order "Here ya go! That'll be 5 bits."
Anon handed her the small stack of coins and gave her a smile before returning the paper. He briefly placed the paper down the sip at his coffee when he felt something peculiar, something that unnerved him. He looked around trying to find the source of his discomfort and saw that Pinkie had begun preparing more tarts, but even though she wasn't paying him any attention he still felt as if a pair of eyes were boring into the back of his head.
*ding-a-ling* The bell above the door sounded.
"Mornin' Pinkie, sure is a storm brewing out there!" Said Applejack, now in the process of wringing the water out of her hat on the welcome mat.
Something about her seemed different to Anon, she was usually out working the fields by this time and she made sure to do so come rain or shine. The next thing that struck Anon as odd was her order, everyday prior that Anon had been in Applejack had ordered herself an apple tart but today she had ordered a raspberry one. "Huh, she told me she hated raspberry." He thought to himself.
Applejack planted herself on the seat next to him "Ah take it ya don't mind if I sit here Anon."
"Sure go ahead, so how come you're not out on the orchard?"
"I uh, decided to take a day off, y'know what they say about working yerself to hard." Applejack replied hesitantly giving him a
nervous smile.
Anon gave her the benefit of the doubt, maybe Applejack just wanted a days rest for once. He went back to sipping the slowly cooling coffee that sat infront of him. He took a bite of his tart and noticed that Applejack hadn't touched the one she'd ordered.
"Are you feeling all right Applejack?" He asked quizzically.
"Of course ahm fine, what makes ya think something's wrong."
"Well for starters, you've taken a day off, which you never do. Then you order a raspberry tart but you hate raspberries."
"Ah do not! I love raspberries!"
"You nearly vomited when you ate one last month."
Applejack fidgeted uneasily, she couldn't deny that.
"Cmon Applejack we're friends, you can tell me if something's bothering you."
"Well, there is one thing ah've been meaning to talk to you about."
Applejack scooted closer to Anon, practically sitting on his lap.
"Ah know we haven't known each other all to long but ever since the day ah first saw you I can't stop thinking about ya. I mean just watching you help on the farm gets me all-" Applejack stopped herself before she ended up going into too much detail "I don't know any other way to put thus sugarcube but, ahm in love with you and I really hope you feel the same about me."
Anon froze, She's joking right? She has to be joking. He looked down at Applejack, who sat patiently awaiting an answer.
"Listen Applejack, I don't mean to break your heart but don't you think you're moving a tad too fast? I mean I've only been here for like four months and I've only known you for two of them."
Anon watched the smile on her face fade into a concerned frown.
"But....we're made for each other! Ah know we are!"
Anon gently nudged her off his lap. "Applejack can we please not do this right now, I need to get some stuff to get done." Seriously, can you not even think of an excuse to get out of here.
Anon stood up and quickly exited the bakery, leaving Applejack and her tears to herself.
"Ah know ah'm right, ah'll just have to show him how." She muttered under her breath.
One Month Later
Things with Applejack certainly hadn't improved since the incident in Sugarcube Corner, now it seemed she was wherever he went. He'd first noticed that when he was visiting Rarity to get himself some new clothes, she had made an offhand remark about how she thought he looked better off with nothing on. This resulted in some awkward laughter and something being hit against the outside wall.
Anon turned to look and caught a glimpse of orange fur and blonde hair running away from the window.
Shortly afterwards, Anon caught glimpses of her more often. Whether it was peeking out of the end of an alleyway or from behind a low hedge, it was there. He'd just put it down to paranoia, until of course he ended up finding a few strands of long blonde hair in his bed and a questionable wet patch on one of his pillows. The locks were changed after that.
Things seemed to be improving until the anonymous letters and such began arriving. They ranged from a simple love heart and an " I Love You" message on a piece of card delivered by the mailmare (initially assuming it was Derpys own hoofwriting till he noticed they were completely unalike) to a bundle of pictures. These pictures contained candid photos of Anon around Ponyville, talking to other mares and even worse, pictures of him sleeping taken from inside his room. At the bottom of the bundle was a picture of him and Rarity, her face heavily scored out by a marker. At this point Anon decided it was probably be best to tell someone about this.
"Can't you just talk with her, please Twilight this is serious."
"Anon, this is Applejack we're talking about here, it's completely out of character for her." The princess replied non-chalantly.
"I'll talk to Rarity about the scored out picture but I seriously think you should think more rationally about this."
"I'm not being rational? You're the one who's dismissing the fact that Applejack is following me!"
"Once again, we don't even know if it's her, it could be anypony, might be Lyra, might be Roseluck, might even be a stallion. The point is Anon, don't go making assumptions."
Anon felt the rage boiling up inside him. " Can't you use a spell or something to see who it was? You're a princess for crying out loud!"
"Listen Anon, I know you're frightened but I need you to calm down, we'll find who's doing it trust me. In the meantime I'm warning you to stay away from Applejack, I don't want you upsetting my friends with false accusations."
"She's the one that needs to stay away from me." he muttered.
Three Weeks Later
The situation had escalated severely since the conversation with Twilight, she has no clue who to suspect in the matter and now matters were becoming more serious. The letters had changed their tone, rather than a simple "I Love You" now there was strongly worded sordid sexual fantasies described within them. Not to mention the fact that the letters themselves were covered in some sort of bodily fluid, Anon preferred not to think what his stalker had rubbed their notes with. Raritys home had also been broken into, nothing was taken but the invader had left a message on the wall written using the same bold black pen used on the photographs, the message itself being a simple warning. "Stay Away From Him, He's Mine" it didn't take much to deduce that the person talked about in the message was Anon.
By now, understandably, Anon was terrified.
"Please Twilight I'm begging you do something! Do anything! Just make them leave me alone!" He pleaded with the Princess.
"It's not that easy Anon, there's more people in danger than just you, think about poor Rarity, someone got into her house as easily as they did yours. Now she's planning on going to her parents for a few weeks till everything blows over."
Anon was near screaming now "But don't you see Twilight! It won't blow over it'll keep going till the creep who's obsessing over me either gets caught or ends up butchering me and defiling my cold, dead body!"
"Anon they won't get you, I promise you that. Now come on it's late, go home and get some rest."
And with that Anon walked swiftly into the cold night, the wind bringing a shivering chill to his body whenever it blew. Halfway home, he heard it. Something, stepping just out of time with his own footsteps, steadily picking up the pace to catch up with him. Panic set in and his eyes darted around, blood now pounding in his eardrums distorting the hoof falls of his stalker. Anon decided now was the best time to scream and run for his life.
He saw the windows of passing house illuminate as ponys went to investigate the source of the noise. After what seemed like an age he arrived at his front door. He checked his surroundings to make sure he had outrun his assailant. "Okay Anon settle yourself down, she's not on the porch or in the street so just unlock the door." But as if he'd spoken to soon, at the top of the street stood a silhouette of a pony wearing a hat, the sight of this caused Anon to let out another screech. He wrenched the door open, quickly slamming it shut behind him, locking and bolting it.
He collapsed with his back against the door, he sat defeated, he'd given up. He prayed that someone had heard him screaming and alerted Twilight to the fact that he was probably around a mere ten minutes away from becoming a psychopaths new plaything.
He sat in silence for 5 minutes, until something slammed against the front door, hard. He had to hide, running through the darkness of his home he chose to hide in the corner of a walk-in closet. Just as he'd settled into his spot he heard the front door splinter and break open. "This is it, this is where I die." he thought to himself, Anon began quietly began whimpering into his hands.
He heard hoofsteps nearing him, then a voice, a voice he recognised. " Anon, you can come out, it's me."
Anon sat dead silent
"Y'know you're only making it harder for yourself if ah have to hunt you down any longer, don't even try to run because ah don't care how much I need you, I'll take you even if I have to break a few of yer bones first!"
Part of Anon was hoping that she'd lose interest and leave but knowing her, she'd hunt non-stop till she found him.
"Ya could've made it so much easier if ya returned ma feelings that morning, you've brought this on yourself, but don't worryah can tell you one thing, we are gonna have a lot of fun together."
Anon curled into a ball, trying to make himself as small as possible against the corner so there was an off chance she'd glance over him and think he's not there. Anons ears picked up on the sounds of shouting from the street, maybe just maybe he had a chance.
"Ain't nothing gonna keep you away from me anymore" Applejack said now directly outside of his hiding place.
Anon was preparing himself for the end until he heard another voice in the distance.
"I think she's in there!"
Now he might actually have a chance, if they reached him fast enough that is.
"Applejack! What's gotten into you, stop this right now!"
"Ya can't keep me away from him! He's mine!"
More hoofsteps and the sounds of a scuffle reached his ears.
"YA CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TOGETHER!"
Applejacks shouts became more and more distant until silence took hold once more.
"Anon, it's me Twilight, you're safe now she's gone, you can come out now."
"......what's gonna happen to her?"
"We'll have to see, being an element of harmony doesn't make her above the law."
Anon sat in silence, he never wanted anything bad to happen to her, just to leave him alone. Dark thoughts drew in on his mind what if she gets imprisoned? She's got a farm to run, Mac can't manage it on his own. He won't be happy if he finds out I'm the reason Applejack lost her marbles. The mere thought of a vengeance seeking Big Macintosh made him shudder. what about the farm, who's gonna buy apples from the relatives of a madmare? Anon didn't like the fact that he could be the sole reason for a family being torn apart,
he felt his chest tighten at the vision playing out in his head.
"Anon, please come out of there"
Anon opened the doors to the closet, embraced Twilight and began to sob.
"Hey, it's alright, it's over now." Twilight said gently stroking his back.
"No it's not Twilight." He choked out between sobs. "Everything's gonna get worse, and it's all my fault."
"Anon, everything will be alright, trust me."
Three Hours Later
The initial hysteria was over, everyone had gone home, Twilight had offered to stay but Anon declined saying he'd be fine on his own.
He now lay on his bed, an emptied cider bottle by his side, staring into space.
The thought of the downfall of the Apple family still lingered on his mind, taunting him.
Maybe Twilights right, maybe I'm over exaggerating, maybe it'll be okay
His endeavour had exhausted him. He knew that his dreams would be haunted by Applejacks presence and thoughts of her brothers revenge, but there was no point in laying awake all night. For the first time in weeks, Anon fell asleep alone.
Author's Note
I do hope you enjoyed my story, feel free to comment and rate.
