You ran and ran and ran, the dot in the distance seeming to grow in brightness but never get closer. But you had to reach her. It’s why you were here. So you kept running, your legs never tiring, your breath never running out, the dot eclipsing everything until finally you had to shield your eyes from its brightness. It felt like you were running for days, but you couldn’t even conceptualize time. All you knew is that you had to reach that dot. There was no failure.

You kept going, feeling like you were making progress until you felt yourself break through a barrier and all of the sudden you were… In the Canterlot castle throne room? There in the middle, laying serenely on a bed of flowers was Metamora. There were others in the room, but you could tell she was the only real one, everything else was a shadow, a ghost. You realized as you approached that you were seeing what was happening outside of this… place, their actions in reality mirrored here onto ghastly frames.

But you finally reached her peaceful, sleeping form. You fell to your knees, holding back your emotions as you saw her lifeless body, an empty vessel, drained of love. Drained of the mare you knew. You took a moment to think about what you were seeing, the fact that you were in the castle, the room full of ponies that weren’t quite there with you… You were here in the middle of a funeral, her funeral - and likely yours too.

“I’m so sorry,” you apologized to the mare in front of you, “I didn’t make it in time. I… I couldn’t save you.”

Something brought you here, though. Something beckoned you forward, pulled you in. Why would it bring you here if you couldn’t save her? Out of all the cruel, unfair things the universe had done to you, this one was unforgivable.

“Why am I here?” you asked aloud, “If I couldn’t save you then why am I even fucking here?”

“Anon, who are you talking to?” a voice called out. Her voice. She was here. She was… not the mare in front of you.

“Em?” you asked cautiously, turning to face the direction of the sound. There she was, standing behind you - living, breathing, talking!

“What?” she asked as if this was the most normal thing on the face of the planet.

“I… I thought you were dead.”

“Why would you think that, silly?” she chuckled, coming closer to you, pausing as the identical mare in front of you came into view, “Wait… Is that me?”

“I… I think so,” you answer, “I think we’re watching our own funerals… How trippy is that.”

“That’s… I still don’t understand what’s going on. Why are we dead? And why are there three ponies on the throne?”

“Oh man, you really missed out on a lot, didn’t you?” you laughed, beckoning her to come closer, “Come here bugbutt, guess it’s storytime again.”

“Only if you’re going to hold me like last time.”

“Of course I’m going to hold you. Why would I ever pass up the chance to do that?”

You sat on the cold stone floor, your back resting against the platform the other Metamora lay in. You eased the living one onto your lap, filled with joy as she wiggled to get situated.

“So what’s the last thing you remember?”

“Green. A lot of green, and then… this.”

“Alright, so we’ll pick up there. That was right when Chrysalis sucked the last of your love out of you. I tried to stop her, but evidently I was too late.”

“Chrysalis!” Metamora reacted, tensing at the name, “She…”

“Don’t worry, I took care of her.”

“You… She’s dead?” Metamora asked, with a surprising amount of sorrow in her voice.

“No! I… I almost did though. But I couldn’t do it, I knew you wouldn’t approve.”

“Then how did you-”

“The same thing you tried to do, she just needed to hear it differently.”

“You gave her your love? Then… did she kill us both?”

“No… She didn’t extract my love like she did from you. I told her she was loved,” you paused, worried about how Metamora would take this next revelation, “I told her that I loved her.”

“You… You told her that you loved her? Why would-”

“I finally saw it, Em. The same thing you noticed in Celestia. She was drowning, trying to fight off loneliness by having everything. But she didn’t need a what, she needed a who.”

“So you…” Metamora paused, her expression unreadable, “You did the right thing.”

“I know. After that she gave back all the love she had taken, but you… you didn’t wake up.”

“But if she didn’t take your love, then why are you here? Are you dying too?”

“No, silly bug. I came to rescue you.”

“To rescue me? How does that even work?”

“I have no idea, but I knew that I could. I felt something pulling me into you, and I leapt.”

“So you’re… Inside me?” she asked, somewhat confused.

“I guess so… Wanna make it really confusing?”

“No, but I’m sure you’re going to try anyway…”

“I could be inside you while I’m inside you.”

“Can you actually think of nothing else but fucking me?” she scolded, “Hive Anon, I can feel your dick already. I’m on the verge of death here and you’re still ready to rut me? I don’t know if I should be ashamed or proud! But can you at least wait until after you’ve saved me?”

“I don’t think you’re going to want that, but okay.”

“Come on, Anon… We’ll have plenty of time when we get back, and if the world is still saved you know we’ll have to celebrate.”

You didn’t respond. She didn’t need to know yet. She wouldn’t come with you if you told her. You just hugged her a little tighter, hoping she missed the tear rolling down your cheek.

“So are we getting out of here or not?”

“Fine, Em. Let’s go,” you conceded, moving to let her off your lap.

She jumped up, looking to you for your lead. You stood, moving over to her once you got to your feet. You picked her up, as perplexed as ever by her surprising lightness. You carried her, your arms underneath her as she draped across them.

“Oh my… Such a gentlecolt…”

“Anything for you,” you said, turning around and holding her over her lifeless facsimile. You gently started to lower her downward, intending to lower her onto that very thing.

“So you’re…” she paused, “You’re putting me back in my body? Is that how this works?”

“I don’t know, but it seems like the only thing to do.”

“Well if you have to put me in my body, how do you get back?”

“You know, I hadn’t really thought about that, but I’ll let you know how it worked once I’m back.”

“But what if you… What if you’re stuck here.”

“You really think I’m going to let a pesky little thing like purgatory keep us apart?”

“You really are something else, you know that?”

“Yeah,” you said, starting to lower her again, “But I’m your something else.”

She just looked at you, a tear in her eye as you lowered her through and into her own body, the otherwise solid looking form bearing no resistance to your actions. As soon as she lay completely at rest and you removed your arms from under her, you felt yourself being pulled from this space, destined to go elsewhere.

“Ponies and Changelings of Equestria,” Celestia spoke, “We come before you in this solemn moment to forge a new way forward. As we lay Metamora and Anon to rest, celebrating their life for the last time, we look to the future. What they have built, what they’ve achieved will last far and beyond their mortal bodies. Today we send these two heroes off onto their next journey as we too embark upon ours. Let us remember them with our silence.”

The entire room drew quiet, as if time itself had stopped. A minute ticked by, not a soul moving or a noise being made. Luna, after wiping the tears from her eyes, took her turn.

“Let us take to heart the lessons we’ve learned from this beloved pair. They’ve taught us how to love, how to share, how to overcome the darkness and evil inside of all of us. But most of all, they’ve taught us that the only way forward is together. No longer will we turn a blind eye to our neighbors or attack those whose are unlike us. From now on we will not let one another go hungry. For Anon and Metamora, we will be strong. Together.”

Chrysalis, standing behind the princesses, stepped forward hesitantly, moving to stand even with them.

“I stand before all of you, humbled by what Anon and Metamora have shown me. It is my greatest regret that they should have given their lives to reveal this to me, but I remain committed to honoring their legacy. Today we honor them by forging an accord that will immortalize their spirit. No longer are we two separate nations. No longer do we take or withhold. From this moment onward the nation of Equestria is home to all, a land where our bounties are shared fully and completely. Today we-”

Metamora stirred, rising from the floor shakily, looking around to the shocked silence everywhere.

“Where is Anon?” she asked, the silence and confusion on everyone’s face only deepening her panic.

Poof.

“I’m right here, you silly bug.”

She jumped into your arms, almost too fast for you to catch her. But you weren’t going to let go of your bug quite yet.

“Metamora, Anon… You’re alive!” Luna observed.

“Hold on, we gotta have a moment real quick,” you shushed, “Then you can be excited about having your bughero back.”

“Anon… We did it!” she smiled, looking at the mixed audience of ponies and Changelings.

“Em,” you calmed, holding her tight, “I have to tell you something.”

“Oh, I know Anon. I know exactly how much you love me. You don’t have to-”

“Hold on, I need you to listen. Please?”

“Anon? What… what is it?”

“Em… I gotta go.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m… I’m leaving now.”

“Alright…” she paused, “Where are we going.”

“You’re not going anywhere, Em. But I’m… I’m headed back to my world.”

“Back to your… But this is your world!”

“No, Em. God do I wish it was, but it’s not. I can’t stay anymore, as much as I wish I could. I loved every minute of this, of being with you.”

“No… You can’t just leave me!”

“I have to. I had enough magic to bring you back to life, but I had to sacrifice the magic keeping me in your world.”

“Anon why would you…”

“Either way, I’ll be alone. It’s just whether I’m alone knowing that you’re still out there, or alone knowing you’re not.”

“Y-You…” she trailed off, “Don’t make me live without you.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice in this.” You said, feeling a force pulling you, as if you were to be lifted from your own body. “I’ll miss you.”

“Please don’t go!” she begged, scrambling to hold onto you any way she could, “I won’t make it!”

“Em, it’s going to be fine. You’re going to be okay.” You said, tearing up. There was no way it was going to be fine. “Just never forget how much I love you.”

“No! No no no no no! Stop it! Please! Don’t!” she was crying too, her tears looking so out of place on her regal form.

You felt yourself beginning to fade out, realizing that you could actually see through your arms, “I love you, Em.”

“Anon, I-I,” she choked back tears, “I l-”

You woke up.

Author's Note

I have a lot of notes because I have a lot of feels. Please bear with me.

It's finally done. The last chapter of the last Act. You don't know how many times I wrote this chapter. I think I actually wrote it 4 or 5 times before I even got to the final act, scrapping it each time. And then in the final act, well I changed something just about every single day. I just put the final pieces in place right before posting it.

You got her back. You did it! ...but when did you figure out you had to give yourself up to make it happen? Did you do the right thing not telling her? How will she survive without you? How will she survive without your love? How will you?

Of all the things that got me in this entire act, the one thing that actually brought tears to my eye, was writing Anon and Metamora's fake funeral. What ended up being 400 words to you was an emotional roller coaster for me - I was all but there in person as I wrote it.

Now you know why it was titled Wake Up. The fact that I made you sit through 45 chapters to twist that knife... Man, I'd hate me if I were you.

Now some of you are probably sitting there like "Oh but it's still marked Incomplete... debug will just give us a nice happy chapter tomorrow and everything will be peachy." Heh, you'd be wrong. I've still got some chapters to post (for example the Extra Chapter Challenge chapters) so we're sticking with Incomplete for now. I'll be posting what comes next on Monday. I'm taking the weekend off, fuckers!

Don't listen to this.