Do as you like

Chapters

Of strings and technology
Of all the lonely insects
A sweet school tour
Daring Do’s Bizarre Adventure (Part 1)
Daring Do’s Bizarre Adventure (Part 2)
A trip for four (Part 1)
A trip for four (Part 2)
Funerals and weddings
Night of scares
The plan is simple (Part 1)
The plan is simple (Part 2)
The stray magician
A regal and rumpus babysitting hangout

Of strings and technology

It’s just about that time, closing time. For the diner, that is. You gotta change attire now to look like a professional barista as the hands on the clock are about to hit 7 PM. As usual, there are no ponies left in the establishment at this time as you snap your fingers and change your clothing. You look in a mirror you’d just summoned to make sure you look professional. You look like a stud, not to mention the classy uniform you have that compliments your green skin well. As good as you look, your night didn’t fare so well. It’s been a few hours since you’ve flipped the sign from “diner” to “bar” and as per usual, no one has entered. Though with recent events, you figure they’ll arrive at the late hours of the day where the weirdos show up. You always did like weird people.

You were bored though. It’s already 10 PM and you’re just reading some Fimfiction fanfics from a different universe. You gotta say though, some of the stories people come up with are pretty darned good. Like the ones with you in them. Though your focus is shifted at the door as you hear the sound of the bell that sounds when someone comes in. You were about to give your usual employee greeting until you realize that it’s just Trixie, though a smile does form on your face. “Good evening, Trixie.” you welcome the mare with the close of your eyes and a nod from your head.

Without another second passing, Trixie bolts in the room and jumps across the counter landing both of you on the floor as she hugs you. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!” Trixie gratefully repeated as she was nuzzling your neck.

“Whoa now, what’s the occasion?” you inquire while bringing the both of you back standing steady as you pat your clothes off any dirt and dust it caught.

“The audience absolutely loved the performance of the great and powerful Trrrrixie. They want me to do more shows all around Equestria now. Can you believe it?” Trixie gushes in joy skipping around you.

“With my help, you better believe it.” you hubristically boast.

Trixie smiles at that. “Well, I can’t say that’s not true.”

“I take it you come here for a victory drink then?”

“Oh, actually I don’t drink.” Trixie shyly admits.

Surprising to say the least for a pony of her age, but not quite baffling enough to make you jump in your seat. “Well then, I’ll open up some cider and we can have a toast.” you offer with a pack of cider in your hands.

“I have to go now, actually. With the last show, I finally used up enough equipment to have more space in my wagon. I gotta make some plans and setup my gear to perform in a filly’s birthday party tomorrow and I just stopped by to say thanks.”

You stare at her for a bit then accept after processing what she’d just said. “Fair enough. At least have this bottle to go then.” you offer after taking out a bottle from the pack of cider.

She takes the bottle with her magic and heads for the door. “Thanks again, Anon.” Trixie says as she turns back.

“Don’t thank me yet, our friendship’s just started.”

Trixie chuckles at that. “Well I’m sure it’ll be a good one. Goodnight, Anon.”

“Goodnight, Trixie.”

With the sound of a bell again, Trixie is out of the diner

Another good hour has passed and you’ve rechecked and refixed the establishment for the seventh time already. Still no customers. If you weren’t working, you were planning about your days in Equestria, or just the occasional “workplace slacking activities” in a bar such as experimenting on the drinks. You’d regret drinking the monstrosity of a drink you’d just made if you weren’t immune to practically everything. It was a mix of Bourbon, Whiskey, Vodka, the works. Though you do know that that recipe is bound to come in handy someday.

While trying out an actually safe experiment that other people can drink without suffering, out of the corner of your eye, two ponies are heading towards the diner door from the outside. One of them appears to have a white coat with an electric blue mane of different shades and some headphones by her neck. The most noticeable feature about her is her goggles that completely cover her eyes. The other one is a more refined looking pony. Her collar and bowtie compliments well with the aura that she expels. Her black flowing hair and gray coat truly does charm you. Not to mention her eyes which would be entrancing if they weren’t glaring at the pony she’s with. Looks like they’re arguing. Though it’s more of a one-sided argument as the gray pony just keeps nagging while the white one is just frowning. She’s taking her words like a champ despite the evident fury on her face.

The sound of the bell signifies to you that they’ve already entered the bar and it also seems they’ve stopped arguing, though the same can’t be said about their demeanor. The gray one seems hesitant to follow the mare with her into the bar, but she follows anyway. It’s considerably late already for someone to just enter the bar but you suppose that’s why the bar is still open for hours. “Good evening, ladies. A table for two I suppose?”

The gray one glares at her friend for a bit then just lets out a heavy sigh. “No… not quite. I’ll just...” she stares to nowhere in particular for a bit looking lost in thought. “Actually, I think I’ll just stay here for a bit.”

Rather than take a seat at the tables, they just sit by the counters near you though they’re far apart from each other. You can already sense the friction from them and you can tell that they’d like to let out some steam. Unlike most ponies, they weren’t intrigued or even phased by your being. They probably overlooked it in their silent fit of rage.

“So what’ll you have?” you ask the both of them as you leer in a bit with your forearm on the counter.

The gray mare speaks up first, “J-Just some water, please.”

You then turn to the white pony as she tiredly says, “A scotch for me.”

Concurrently as she said that, the refined vibe the other pony gives off breaks as she couldn’t contain her rage any longer than she already has. “We can’t even afford to pay the rent anymore, Vinyl! How could you possibly think about buying something as expensive as Scotch?!” she shouts infuriated with her hooves smashed on the counter.

She doesn’t seem to care much about how anybody sees her at this point, her eyes clearly show a burning, undying rage within them. Well then, that was a quick shift of emotions. You don’t say anything against her as you just let her vent out her steam. You suppose that’s what bars are made for in the first place, and that’s what you wanna hear, problems. Looking back now, you remember that you always wanted people to come to the bar and complain so you can help them. That’s not really happened as of late, but the time has come and you’re just waiting for one of them to cross the line.

The white pony just says nothing as she waits for her drink unphased by the words of her supposed friend, hopefully not former friend.

The gray mare waits for a response and inevitably doesn’t get one. She’s fuming now. “Fine, do as you like. I knew I should’ve went straight home than try to talk some sense into you. I’m going back to our flat, and don’t expect a warm welcome when you’re back.” she shouts as she starts storming off to the exit.

No no no, that’s not happening today, the line has just been crossed. The bar is a place of melancholy where the despaired gather to be restored. You come depressed and leave refreshed, melancholy doesn’t leave the place. So you pull out all the stops and use the card you didn’t want to have to use unless needed… well… not really, you’ve always wanted to use this move for the silliest reasons. This is one of them.

“GATE OF BEWWY WUBS!” you shriek loudly enough to get everyone’s attention and make their fur stand on end.

Multiple yellow ripples appear within the atmosphere behind you and an onslaught of hands make their way to the gray mare.

They’re all grabbing her now and pulling her towards you while she’s in shock still trying to understand what’s going on. Once she’s on the counter, her shock and stress turns into relief as she melts away into pleasure. She lightly moans in pleasure and ecstasy with every rub. On the chin, the cheek, the head, behind the ears, and most especially the belly. It looks like she’s already forgotten all her problems and just let them drift away as she’s already snoring on the counter.

You temporarily summon a comfy bed for her to sleep in. You lay her down as she adorably snores and occasionally flinches a bit. That light blush of hers is a real tug on your heartstrings though, one so downright heart shaking that you had to stop time and take a picture so her friend won’t think you’re weird, or worse. Clearly though, you’ll tuck that picture somewhere no one will find and hopefully you won’t forget to do that.

With her comfortable now, you turn to the white pony who is not only baffled but is moreover fearful as she keeps her distance from you. She’s didn’t mind that you were a one of a kind species but she’s only found out now that you’re no regular guy. She manages to stutter a bit, “Wh-What are you?”

You quickly teleport behind her with your mouth near her ear, “Nothing personnel, kid… but it looks like you two need some help.”

Her vigorous shaking slowly falters as her expression turns into confusion.

“First, introductions.”

It’s been a few minutes now and I’ve been informed of necessary context to understand their situation. So apparently the white mare’s name is Vinyl Scratch and her still comfortably slumbering friend is Octavia Melody. Some pretty peculiar names since they align with their shtick. More importantly, you could already tell but they can’t pay they’re rent anymore, what you didn’t know was that they couldn’t pay their rent because they don’t have a stable job. Though that’s a topic to be discussed in a few minutes, first you have to answer Vinyl’s questions before her head bursts from all the confusion.

“Who are you again?”

“As I said, I’m Anonymous. You can call me Anon. I’m like an almighty being.”

“So you’re pretty much like Celestia then?” she asks tilting her head.

“Well, more like Discord from what I hear, but much more powerful.”

As per the usual response from everyone after hearing that starting to be wary around you. Noticing her change in demeanor, you hastily speak up, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna try anything against Equestria.”

“Well then why are you here?” she asks a tad relieved.

You decide to have a little fun to ease both your tensions, “I opened up this bar so when ponies come passing by late at night I can kidnap them to put them in my dungeon and no one would know.”

You’re having a good laugh now as Vinyl is trembling in fear. She knows that if it were true, there’s nothing she can do about it now, and your howling only makes the vibe eerier.

“Hahaha, no Vinyl. I’m yanking your chain. I just woke up here one day and now, I’d just like to live a simple life.” you quickly correct yourself as to calm Vinyl down.

She lets out a breath of relief after hearing that. “So is this what you’ll be doing for… ever? Are you immortal?”

“Maybe and yes, and I’m sure you have a lot of questions but there’s more important things we should talk about for now.” you respond while looking at her friend Octavia.

She pouts a bit with a reluctant look but catches herself when she recalls their grave problem with a still to be found solution.

“So you don’t have a stable job? Tell me about that.” you continue as you take a seat next to her.

“Well, me and Tavi just do gigs every now and then but less and less people have been calling us up. Now, people prefer other genres of music and so we don’t even have enough bits to pay our rent. We had a performance for an event earlier for a party Pinkie had and we had an argument which pretty much ruined the party and so we were asked to leave.” she’s tearing up a bit now. “We shouldn’t have quarreled. We were just tensed a bit and because of that fight… we’re probably not gonna perform for anyone again. S-So I heard there was a new bar here and I wanted to have a one last drink before we live in the streets. I know it’s a stupid move but alcohol always did a good number to calm me down.”

That was quite the tale she’d just told you. She’s silently crying to herself now as you try to console her before thinking up a solution. “Well then it’s a good thing you came to this bar.”

“Well… what are you gonna do?” she whimpers between sniffles.

She’s got you there. You haven’t really thought about how to help them yet and she’s already put you in the spotlight to answer her question. Well you can’t help them by summoning bits, you’ve sworn that despite your infinite powers, there are some things you’ll never do. Two of them being summoning bits and swearing. Swearing for obvious reasons, seeing as even the simplest words such as “peeved” is already offensive, you have to be wary around your words. Summoning bits for the reason that you don’t wanna create a fluctuation in their economy by making money that’s not accounted for in their system, though you’ll summon gems every now and then when needed. Though bits are relatively equal to gems, gems are a different case so it’s fine.

An idea comes to mind after a bit of thought. “Vinyl?”

“Yeah?”

“How would you like to work here?”

You do get lonely here every now and then and with the high amount of customers, your pay is way too high. With the two of them working here, their music will most probably get even more customers to come in. That won’t really do a big number on your paycheck and even if it did, you don’t really mind. Overall, getting more people to work with you isn’t really such a bad idea now that you think about it, and the two of them seem to fit the bill pretty well. I’m sure Rarity won’t mind if I hire even just a couple of people to help around.

“Thanks but I don’t know much about working in the service industry.” she says

“You don’t have to work the service. You and Octavia can play music for the customers. Whether they like it or not doesn’t matter, you’ll get payed anyway. Moreover, you can brush up your craft when there’s no customers around.”

Vinyl’s eyes go wide after realizing the benefits of the steal offer you’re giving her, “Sounds like a bargain. How’s the pay?”

“A couple hundred bits a day as profit. With zero expenses aside from restocking, my paycheck is too high for my own good. We somehow get a lot of money despite the lack of customers by the night but I’m sure you two can bring them in which means more bits for us.”

Vinyl looks deep in thought as she contemplates her circumstances with a hoof to her chin. This is just what they need, a fairly high paying stable job that involves their craft. With no other options left where she and Octavia can live normally, her mind is set to a decision. Though one question still lingers within her mind about you. “I have a question.”

“Go fire.”

“Why are you helping us? I get why you pulled Tavi back here with your ‘Gate of Bewwy wubs’ was it, but why do you wanna help strangers out? You could’ve turned a blind eye, it doesn’t concern you after all.” she asks truly concerned. She probably thinks you have an ulterior motive but you gotta play the “Wise God” card here for now.

“Why anything? There’s a lot of questions and some will always be left unanswered. Was it fate that you came here today? Was it just a coincidence that I popped up in Equestria one day? We’ll never know. Though what I do know is that you’re being given a rare chance to get useful help be my and the real question is, are you gonna take it?”

Her mind’s already set with a firm answer, “I’ll… I’ll take it, if not for me then for my Tavi. Though I’m sure she’d take the job too, I still have to ask her.” Vinyl says as she looks over to her friend slumbering away in bed. She must’ve been really tired.

“Talk to her about it tomorrow when you’re both well rested. It’s a Friday night so you should go rest and think about it for the weekend. If she’s in for the job then both of you can come by Monday morning whenever. Though I’d prefer you come before 6 AM. If she’s not for some reason then come on your own.”

“Well it’s a good thing I didn’t buy that scotch just yet then. We’re a bit late on paying rent too and we might get evicted if we don’t pay this weekend but we’ll find a way I suppose.” Vinyl says with a worried look on her face.

You can’t really let them stay here since they have their own place, and getting evicted is pretty bad for them since it’ll be hard finding a new apartment. Your only form of help is giving them a bag of bits to temporarily pay their rent. You’re loaded after all and it’s barely a scratch on your savings, more importantly it’s not summoned bits so it’s fine. “Here, take this,” you offer her a bag of bits you’d just summoned from your money stash. “It should be enough to pay your rent for the weekend.”

A regular person would just loan them the money, but you’re a good person and money isn’t exactly high on your list of important things. What you care about is helping people.

That gesture though is already bringing Vinyl to tears. She was grateful for the job offer, but she’s even more touched now by your generosity, a virtue which you take in a high regard because of Rarity.

“Thank you Anon… so much. We’ll… we’ll pay you back someday somehow.” she cries with tears of joy as she gives you a hug.

You just pat her on the head to comfort her as you respond, “Vinyl, you’d already be paying me back just by working here. It’s fine. I’m sure it’s been a tiring night for both of you so why don’t you go home?”

“Sure, it’s about time we head home.” she sniffles.

You both look at the still sleeping Octavia. Vinyl has a look of worry in her face as she’s deep in thought. She’s probably wondering how she’s gonna take her home. She can use her magic but she’s too burnt out for that at the moment.

“Mind if I carry her?” you offer as you walk up next to her bed.

Vinyl thinks for a bit then comes to an answer after deciding that you’re not hostile… despite your quip earlier, “Sure. I don’t see why not.”

“Great, lead the way.” you say as you scoop up Octavia and make the bed disappear. She’s a heavy one, but that slight breathing of hers that you feel by your chest really motivates you.

She gives a nod as she exits the bar to the outside. With a quick snap of your fingers, there’s another sign that says “BE RIGHT BACK” next to the “OPEN” sign.

You’re already out and making your way to their apartment with Vinyl and Octavia.

It’s been a few minutes of walking and it’s pretty silent and awkward, so you decide to step aside business and get to know them in a more casual aspect. “So how are you two related? With Octavia, I mean.”

“Well, I love her and she loves me.” she explains with a little smile on her muzzle.

That’s considerably surprising but nothing too new to you. You figure that the concept of love will most probably be just the same with any other species as it is with humans.

“That’s nice. It’s a bit rude but, how’s society treating you with that?” you ask letting your curiosity take the better of you.

“What do you mean? Relationships with mates or stallions are pretty normal here. You’d rarely find someone against it. Heck, some ponies even have inter-species relationships.” she explains confusedly.

Ah, right. That’s one of the things you like about this place. The people aren’t as criticizing as they are on Earth. It really helps with your capability to live a simple life. Of course, criticism is a large factor in many important things such as change, though sometimes defending opinions isn’t the right thing to do and this is one of those times.

“Right, I forgot this place was more… better with feelings.” you incorrectly say as a single positive word will never be enough to describe how much better this place is than Earth.

“It’s… a human thing.” you explain trying to shift the subject.

“Human. Is that what you are?”

“Yup. On a higher note, what’s Octavia like? She’s been asleep this whole time and I’d like to know a bit about her in case she decides to work with me.” you query curiously.

“She’s a sweet one I’ll tell you that. I know she said she wasn’t gonna give me a warm welcome when I come back but I knew she was gonna wait for me until I came back. No matter how hammered I’d be when I get back, she’s gonna tuck me into bed and sleep beside me rather than give me a harsh scolding.” she glees brightly as she nuzzles Octavia by her nose.

“That’s real sweet. I don’t remember the last time I’d loved someone like that.” you lie. You remember the last time someone loved you like that… which was never. You’d always lived alone. You don’t really mind since it makes things less complicated but it was a thought that lingers within your mind every now and then. Though seeing as you’re the only human here and you’re immortal, that thought is at the far back end of your head. You’d still get pretty intimate and touchy-feely with everyone every now and then though. Hugs and such are always a great pluck on the heartstrings after all.

“Haha, well I’m sure you’ll find someone eventually.”

“Right, thanks Vinyl.” you smile patting her head. You suppose she is right. Forever is a long time after all and you can’t control the feeling of the heart.

Those thoughts die down as you notice Vinyl come to a stop by a pretty mediocre house. This must be the place.

“After you.” you gesture.

“My my, what a gentleman you are, Anon.” she quips as she unlocks the door.

“That’s me.” you return similarly as you both enter the house. It’s pretty rundown. Frail wallpaper, brittle wooden floorboards, the works.

“Nice place.” you joke sarcastically as you keep taking a look around.

“Tone down on the sarcasm now. It’s the last thing we need.”

“Next to sickness. You should get a better place soon.”

“No… a roof over our heads is better than nothing. More importantly, as ruined as this place is… it’s home. It’ll take some time but we’ll get this place shaped up in no time with our new jobs.” she explains looking around as if reliving memories.

Sentiment, a value you hold dear to your heart. You respect that and it only makes you want to get to know them more, though that’s a tale for another time. It’s already getting pretty late.

“Hehe, well you better work hard then. So where’s the bed? My shoulders are gonna fall off if I have to carry her any longer.” you jest.

“Well she’s a plump one after all. Here, just put her down by the couch.” she chuckles while clopping towards you.

Setting Octavia down, Vinyl says, “It’s been quite the night, Anon. Thanks, I think we’ll live better from now on.” she gratefully thanks with a hug.

“Things are already better Vinyl.” you tell her as you snap your fingers. Just like that, their living conditions are notched up a couple fold. The place is refurnished, the wallpapers are good as new, the floor is waxed, and it looks a whole lot brighter overall. It’s a bit much but it’s a good way to help them. You can only think of what Octavia’s reaction will be with everything when she wakes up. The mere thought of it puts a smile on your face.

Vinyl just looks at you happily in awe and before she can say anything you quickly say, “Good night, Vinyl.” as you teleport outside of the house. You could already tell she was gonna give you a flurry of gratefulness so you had to book it. You never really liked it when people say “thank you” too much even if you’ve really done a lot for them.

Walking back to the bar, your thoughts are filled by the possible changes you’ll have in your job now that Vinyl and Octavia will probably work there next Monday. The possible new memories you’d make with them now encompass your thoughts. What kind of things will you do together with them? How deep will your friendship be with them? Will you be friends with them until they… never mind. Those thoughts start to simmer down as your bar is within eye distance, mostly because you see a yellow pony with a pink mane by the entrance peering in and looking around worriedly. Is that Fluttershy? Why’s she here? To get a drink perhaps? You’re not sure but you’ll have to find out right now because she’s definitely looking for you.

In a swift motion you bolt towards her at the speed of light and grab her into a tight hug by her barrel.

“Ahhhhh!!!” Fluttershy screams in fear of what might considerably have just assaulted her.

It’s not the nicest hoot and a holler, but it’s not the rudest either. So in your sequence of laughing, you immediately set her down to face as you kneel down on one foot with your eyes closed. “My apologies Fluttershy, I’m bored.”

She seems to understand you’re unreasonable reason but she’s still trembling as she hyperventilates in her place. Despite how simple your little jump on her was, you give her understanding even if she’s a tad hysterical about it. She really is shy and easily scared so instead of getting upset at her, you just try to console her. In a second, you pull her into a warm embrace by the front and wholeheartedly say, “I’m sorry.”

She slowly stops shaking at that kind gesture of yours. You pull her away as you give her a wide, bright smile to which she weakly returns as she hides behind her hair. “So what brings you here my dear Fluttershy?” you break the silence in the hopes of shifting topics. You don’t suppose she’s here for a drink but anything’s always possible.

She speaks up finally breaking away from her frightened trance, “A-Actually, there’s an emergency a-and I need your help.”

You’re not exactly close with Fluttershy, but you do know her and she knows you though you’d like to get to know her more soon. On a higher note, her asking for your help specifically must mean that it’s pretty urgent.

“What’s the matter?” You ask worriedly.

“I was at my cottage taking care of the animals when Angel asked me for a salad as a late night snack but I ran out of ingredients to make a salad, so he threw a bit of a fit and ran towards the Everfree Forest. Oh I hope he’s okay.” she explains as she shakes in place a bit. You can tell that not only Fluttershy but practically everyone is afraid of the Everfree, though having witnessed it’s dangers firsthand does make it more sensible. “Th-then I remembered that you came from the Everfree Forest unharmed and with your powers I… I figured you could help. I-If that’s not too much trouble for you of course.” she whispers hopingly as she awaits your response.

This is most definitely an urgent matter so you hastily answer, “No worries Fluttershy. He’s a white rabbit right? I’ll find him. You just stay at your cottage and rest for the night, it’s already pretty late. He’ll be back in no time.”

Before any more words are exchanged, you pat Fluttershy lightly on the head just before teleporting near the end of the Everfree Forest. You made sure to leave another you by the bar’s counter just before doing so. Treading forward now, you enter the grim Everfree Forest.

Author's Note

For those of you who play F/GO, you’d know that the CCC event was happening. I just finished it myself so my apologies that this chapter is pretty late. I’m pretty excited for the next chapter so I’ll do as fast as I can. On a higher note, if you think there wasn’t enough Octavia here, well, that’s story writing. Don’t worry though, we’ll have more of her soon enough. Have a good one friends.

Of all the lonely insects

It’s a dark stroll you’re taking into the Everfree Forest but it’ll be a quick one. You already pinpointed Angel’s location even before your quest to find him started. Nearing in where Angel is, you shift your vision to thermal with a filter that only shows you living beings. You phase through objects walking towards him such as trees and bushes here and there considering you can only see living beings thermally.

You masked your presence so you won’t need to engage in combat with whatever’s in the Everfree. You clearly can’t get hurt but if it follows you then it can hurt Angel so you’ll have to take care of it before continuing your mission. You can sense that there’s nothing near Angel that’s attacking him so you decided to just take a stroll to him and let the Everfree scare the heck out of him so he won’t run here again. You can also sense he’s afraid and lost but you’ll just let that feeling sink in him while you walk to him. You’re in point blank range from him now but something’s off, something’s… awry.

You were lost in thought before but looking more closely now, there’s a figure a couple meters from Angel beyond some thick shrubbery. It’s not engaging him but what makes it pretty peculiar is that it looks like a pony. What’s a pony doing in the Everfree so late at night, and why’s it look a bit different from one? It’s got the basic form of a pony but it’s larger than one, and it seems there’s holes by its limbs. It’s definitely hostile, though it’s also weak and trembling. Nevertheless, you must get Angel out of the Everfree as quick as possible.

You mute all the sounds you’ll make as to not scare either of them away. You’re in front of Angel now and your shadow makes him turn around shaking. All he sees is a towering figure of darkness looming over him, though his fear sets him still. You take notice of his fear and realized that that probably wasn’t the best approach, though you save your mistake quickly by teleporting behind him and masking the form of Fluttershy. You even have a salad bowl with you as an insurance. You call to him with Fluttershy’s melodic tune and he looks back devoid of worry and full of regretfulness. Looking back and seeing the shadowy figure gone, he doesn’t take his chances and just runs at you. Upon touching the salad bowl, you teleport him to Fluttershy’s house with the salad bowl with a note on it that says

“I’ll come by tomorrow. Prepare the tea, I’ll bring the muffins.
-yours truly, Anon”

With Angel gone, you face the hostile figure near you. You remove any power you’d just used such as the sound masking and the transformation, you’ll have to face this one without any tricks, not like it can hurt you anyway. You make your presence known by some rustling of the bushes but you haven’t said a word. It seems to take notice of your presence. In the very case that it’s a regular pony that’s just lost, you make your sentience known by calling out, “Good evening.”

It’s a tad confused by your remark but knowing that you’re sentient, it immediately comes out of the bushes tackling you to the ground with your arms pinned. With nothing that can harm you, you play along to see where this is going. The long hair indicates to you that the pony is a she. You turn on your night vision to get a more detailed look. With more to see, you can already tell that this is the changeling that Twilight warned you about, Chrysalis. You grabbed a mental picture of Chrysalis from Twilight’s mind when she was talking about her during the double babysit. You can pretty much tell why she’s assaulting you but it’s pretty surprising to you that she’s in the Everfree. You’d thought she’d be in populated places stealing love or something.

Now that you’ve confirmed that since she’s Chrysalis and not some Eldritch abomination, you know that she’s not capable of hurting you one bit so you let things play further along. She has a rather confused but mischievous look on her face. Her nefarious look drops a few seconds later and turns into complete confusion. “Wh-What? That’s… not possible.” she mutters as she faints on your chest.

You could already tell that she’s confused as to why she couldn’t collect love from you. You’d already kept an internal bind into your soul. Remembering that Twilight remarked how changelings eat love, you’d made a seal in you whereas it prevents them from stealing your love. On a higher note, there’s a dying being right in front of you.

You touch her forehead to take a view of what she’s been up to lately. There’s… not much. She’d mostly been wandering in the Everfree and she hasn’t eaten in a long while. She’s starving and fighting off some beasts from the Everfree only made her weaker and bruised. That definitely explains why she fainted, she’s spent. Removing your hand from her forehead, you notice that she’s burning up. She’s suffering, but what are you gonna do about it?

Welp, she’s not capable of harming anyone so you might as well help her out. You don’t like the idea of the evils she’d done before but that was then and this is now. For all you know, she’s probably regretted all that and she’s just eating love out of necessity. In the very case that she attacks someone again, you make an alarm wherein you’d be mentally notified if someone gets attacked by her again. You’d just pop up and take care of her when the occasion arises. For now, you can’t let her suffer like this, no one deserves treatment like this. In the very case that she does deserve this, well… it’s time to see how much she’s changed first.

You pick her up as you stand from the ground. You’re carrying her princess-style now as she’s dozed off on your shoulder. Her slumber isn’t going well. She has a face of pain as she moves around in your arms. This is bad, she’s having a nightmare and she’s physically deprived. She really doesn’t have it going for her does she? It’s a rare encounter you had with her but you’ll make the most of it by returning her to her normal condition.

With a snap of your fingers you’re back in your home. You quickly lay her down on your comfy bed and prepare a set of medical equipment to aid her. You put a warm blanket over her, a wet towel on her forehead, some menthol rub by her chest, the works. She’s at least stopped fidgeting around but she still has that pained look on her face. That’s about all you can do for now. Though you can just make her sickness go away, there’s no better care than TLC (Tender Loving Care). Besides, despite your capacity to just make problems go away, it means more to you and to others if you take the time to manually fix them.

You take a Japanese style sitting position as you take your fair share of rest. You’re going to sleep now as you wait for her to wake up so you can take care of her more hours from now. After all there’s some things that you can’t help her with while she’s asleep such as eating. In the very case that she tries to escape, the other you still manning the bar downstairs will take care of her so she stays to finish her full recovery.

The morning light pierces your closed eyes as it awakens you from your slumber. You do a quick scan and your other you is still at the counter resting. Telepathically, you speak with him. “Hey other me?”

“Yes, other me?” he replies instantly already expecting you to speak with him at this hour.

“It’s almost that time of the day, opening time. Keep the diner running will ya? I’ll be busy today.” you request hoping to aid Chrysalis for the most part of the morning.

“Will do, other me.”

“And don’t for-“

“Forget about Pinkie, her breakfast is already being made.” other you cuts you off knowing the rest of your thoughts.

“Thanks, other me” you gratefully praise.

“No worries, take care of her well.”

“Will do, other me.”

That’s all that’s said as you focus on your task at hand. You get up and make your way to Chrysalis to check on her temperature. She’s still still burning up. You’d pull up the blinds so she would sweat more but that’d ruin her sleep, so you refrain from doing so for now. At the very least she looks peaceful while she’s sleeping. Letting her get some more rest, you make your way down to the kitchen to make her a proper meal.

Walking down the stairs, you hear a strong stream of air and the ring of a bell. It must be 6 AM already.

Reaching the tiles of the first floor, you see Pinkie by the counter with the other you. “Good morning to you two.” you greet hastily making your way to the kitchen.

Pinkie doesn’t seem to be confused with your powers anymore as she takes it as normal at this point. “Good morning, other Anon. Care to join us for some breakfast.” she greets back.

“Actually, I’m the original Anon. Isn’t that right, other me?” you ask.

“That’s right, other me.” your clone confirms.

With a smirk on your face, you remark on Pinkie’s offer, “I don’t need to eat, Pinkie. Besides, I’m pretty busy right now.”

“Oooooh, what is it? I bet it’s interesting.” Pinkie peers in curiously at you from the counter.

“It sure is, I gotta take care of something upstairs. Though it’s also rather… secretive.” you evasively give an excuse to keep Chrysalis’ presence a secret.

Pinkie’s eyes sparkle at that, “I like secrets, and I sure can keep one too.”

“I know Pinkie, but not this one.”

“We’ll see about that.” Pinkie dares as she makes a mad comical dash for the stairs.

She tries to no avail as she slams into an invisible wall by the stairs’ entrance.

She’s dazed but she’s not hurt so you just give her little attempt a chuckle as you pat her on the head. “Enjoy your meal, Pinkie.” you say as you finally make your way to the kitchen to make Chrysalis some breakfast.

Once inside, you ponder as to what you’ll cook up for your patient. Perhaps some milk and honey oatmeal with honey ginger tea will do her some good to start the day up.

In a few minutes her breakfast is perfectly prepared and on a tray. You teleport yourself and the meal upstairs as to not confuse your customers right outside since the other you is still there working his shift.

You peer in your room only to find Chrysalis shifting around your bed as she starts to wake up. Perfect, you got here just in time.

She’s probably confused about her current situation. The situation is so well-aligned that you deviously decide to take advantage of her confusion. Entering the room with her meal you put up a warm smile and greet to her, “Good morning my snuggle bug, how’d you sleep last night? I couldn’t sleep though, hugging you in bed just kept my heart racing.”

She’s even more confused now as a mad blush takes over her face. You simply lay her breakfast beside her and pull the blinds open so the sunlight can come in. Her shocked trance was only disrupted by the piercing rays of light as she uses her hoof to cover her eyes. Noticing her massive confusion, you decide to keep the ball rolling. “What’s the matter, honey? Do you need a hug to calm your nerves?” you offer as you take a seat by the bedside and open your arms. She flinches back at your gesture and moves a little further away from you. Inches later she collapses back down into the sheets of the bed as her body is too weak to move any further.

You decide to drop the act chuckling and let her mind ease up with the facts. “Hehehe, sorry sorry. I thought it’d be quite entertaining to beat around the bush for a moment, and it was. You’re Chrysalis, I presume?”

She doesn’t respond to that, she’s only glaring at you fiercely as she remembers the events of the night before. Seeing that you’re not attacking her, she doesn’t engage in attacking you as she remembered she can’t take your love for some reason, though she still puts her guard up. She still treats you coldly but at least she doesn’t see you as a threat. “I have to go.” she sternly says in a cold manner as she makes a dash for the door.

You’d chase her down but instead opt to just look at her as each step she takes is slower than the last. That must’ve taken what little strength she had left just to do that as she’s laying on the floor devoid of energy to do anything.

Seeing her sorry state, you stand up from the bedside and slowly stride towards her. Once you’re above her, you kneel down to lock her into a warm embrace with her back towards you. “You’re too weak to use your magic and moreover even move. You don’t have the strength to even leave here.” you whisper calmly in the hopes of easing her will to leave.

You can feel a stream of a tear or two land on your arms as you grasp her tightly. Here it is, the fall of the mighty. Her realization of how weak she’s become was only confirmed once you’d made mention of it as it was already a thought that’s been on her head for a while. She feels helpless right now, and you’ll do what you can to bring her back in shape.

“Stay.” you softly suggest.

“...no.” she manages to mutter between tears.

“Just until you recover.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pretty please for me times three?”

“No.”

Chrysalis is atop your bed again with eyes dry. Though she hasn’t said a word since your pleading and she’s looking the other way in a stern manner, she’s at least decided to stay for now, though it’s not like she could leave anyway. It’s pretty silent but not awkward so you decide to step in and start up a conversation to get her to eat before the food gets cold. “So why’d you assault me last night?” you ask already knowing the answer.

“I was hungry.” she coldly says still looking away from you.

“Well, here’s some food. It’s pretty good food too.”

“I eat love.”

“It’s your favorite meal.”

“My favorite meal is love.”

“Hmmm… this was made with love.” you seem to be going with this the right direction as you see her agitating a bit.

She just glares at you from your last statement so you decide to continue, “Well then, I… love you.” you joke around as Chrysalis blushes wildly still averting her gaze from you.

“If I eat this, will you stop bugging me?” she asks now looking at you though hiding her face behind her hair.

“No but you’ll feel better if you do.”

She hesitates for a second before finally conceding, “...Fine.”

She’d take the tray with her magic, but as said, she’s too weak to use it. Noticing her incapacity to help herself, you carry the tray and work your way to the other side of the bed. She scurries back a bit away from you as she asks, “W-What are you doing?”

“Well you can’t use magic and you’re too weak to grab the spoon so… I guess I’ll… feed you?” you explain. Though you’re still confused by how ponies eat liquid foods such as soup with spoons.

“No.” she commands with conviction.

You know she’s really hungry but can’t find a way to eat without spilling the meal all over so you follow through with what she wants to see what she does next. “Alright then, I gotta see a pony about a thing so good luck with that.”

“Wait!” she pleads stopping you from leaving the door.

“Hmm?”

“F-Fine, help me.”

“You gotta be nicer than that.”

“P-Pl-Please” she manages to mutter with gritted teeth.

“Aww, you’re so cute when you try to be nice.” you coo as you teleport beside her and give her a flurry of huggy wuggies.

“Alright, alright, now get off me.” she demands annoyed. At the very least she’s come to accept your kindness even if she’s a bit reluctant about it.

“Sure thing. Here, say ‘ahhhh’.” you request taking a scoop from the thankfully still warm honey oatmeal.

Her coat is practically red right now as she hides behind her hair even more. She already dislikes but still tolerates you feeding her, but she absolutely despises the way you’re feeding her. Still, she knows she can’t do anything but accept your peculiar kindness. She opens her mouth sadly without the comically cute ‘ahhh’ sound, but if she stays with you then you hope she’ll let up someday. Placing the spoon in her mouth, her eyes light up into a sparkle as she takes in the whole serving immediately. It’s clear that she extremely enjoyed your breakfast. You’re pretty sure that she’s never had anything like this before.

In a few minutes, you’re done feeding her breakfast. She especially enjoyed the honey ginger tea as well. She’s filled up well and feels pretty drowsy for now. You teleport the dishes downstairs, close the blinds, and pull up the blankets for her. Her eyelids are closing now and she’s almost asleep as she gets comfy. She’s definitely too tired and satisfied right now to realize that she’s dropping her serious persona.

It’s about 7 AM in the morning now and you need to make your way to Fluttershy to speak with her as you let Chrysalis get more of her rest. You’re already fairly certain that she won’t try to escape, and other you will make sure she won’t even if she could. At the foot of the door, you hear Chrysalis speak up. “Wait.”

“Yes?” you curiously ask.

“Wh-What’s your name?”

“It’s Anonymous, but you can call me Anon.” you honestly answer her.

“Well then… th-thank you, Anon.”

That’s a very good sign for you. Perhaps she’s not unaware of getting lenient after all. Is she getting softer even if it’s only to an average level? It doesn’t matter, it’s still a pretty good sign. You put a smile on your face and say, “Get some rest, Chrysalis.”

Fluttershy’s cottage is now within your view and so is she it seems. It looks like she’s just about done feeding her animals some breakfast as she feeds some seeds to a variety of birds.

Finishing her job, she bids her birds goodbye kindly and turns towards her front door. Though she stops in the middle of her rotation as she notices your presence. “Oh my. You’re quite early, Anon.”

“My bad, I should’ve given you a time in my note last night.” you apologize feeling embarrassed.

“No no, it’s alright. You’re just in time. Please, come in.” she offers opening the door and gesturing you inside.

You give her a nod as you swiftly enter inside and make yourself comfortable on her sofa. Fluttershy seems to have flew into the kitchen while you’re looking around her cottage. There’s all sorts of animals but they all appear to be eating at the moment, though a few of them give you the occasional wave and smile as you passed them by.

Fluttershy soon comes back with a tray that has two teacups and a teapot on it complimented with some condiments such as sugar. You get up to help her take the tray to the coffee so she won’t have to do much effort to tend to you. You’re her guest, but she and her friends have already done a lot for you even if you didn’t need her help.

“Why thank you, Anon.” she says wholeheartedly. “Why’d you want to meet up today? I didn’t get a chance last night to find out.” she continues curiously as she takes her seat by the couch.

“Well,” you try to bundle your thoughts together while taking your seat yourself beside Fluttershy as you put the tray down and summon an assortment of muffins. “It’s been a while and I figured it just about time that we got to know each other more. If… that’s okay with you.”

“That’s really sweet of you, Anon, but aren’t you busy with your diner?”

“I’m busy with something else, actually...” you pause as your mind drifts back to Chrysalis for a bit. “But it can wait.”

You can’t take the silence that’s quickly building up so you decide to be courteous, “So uhhh… how do you like your tea?”

“Oh, thank you, a-and I’d like some honey and a lemon please.”

Immediately, you make her brew the way she likes it while making yours as well just how you like it, plain.

While trying to perfect her tea, she asks, “So, ummm… what happened last night?”

“Nothing much. Just a stroll into the forest and I found Angel.” you shrug lightly, though Fluttershy takes your action the previous night as very brave.

“Th-Thank you for helping me find him,” she blushes a bit and hides behind a couple strands of hair. “Thank Celestia neither of you got hurt, I-I just didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t do anything.” she’s tearing up now.

This definitely wasn’t her fault though. So you pat her by the withers and console her, “It’s not your fault, Fluttershy. Even so, you did something, you called me.”

You pull her into a tight hug and run your fingers through her scalp to make her feel better. “Thank you, Anon. Thank you.” she returns as you dry her tears and fix her mane a bit to which she giggles.

“By the way, where’s Angel?”

“He’s still sleeping since last night, he came back confused and shaking in fear. Thankfully, I calmed him down after a while.” she explains.

“Well, at least he won’t be running to the Everfree anytime soon.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” she says while you give her her tea.

She takes a sip just as you do and you ask, “So, what do you usually do from day to day?”

A long conversation is then traded between you and Fluttershy. She talked mostly about her life and the things she’s done with her friends and most of her opinions, you on the other hand talked about your old world and your life in Equestria since you’d arrived. She was glad to hear that you’ve been making new friends though. You found out that she and Discord occasionally have tea time just like you are with her now. You might visit her soon to meet him or to get to know more about him.

It’s almost noon so you decide to end your conversation already right after your zinger, “And so I said, ‘That’s not a pony, that’s my wife.’”

That real humdinger got both of you gasping for air as you both laugh until you wheeze.

Calming yourself down, you close your conversation, “Well then Fluttershy, I think it’s time I take my leave.”

“I had a nice time, Anon. I hope we can have more of this soon. It reminds me of when I’m with Discord.” she thanks you while getting up to show you out the door.

“I surely will, Fluttershy. I had a nice time too and hopefully Discord will be here the next time I can come.”

“I’m sure you’ll both like each other a lot.”

You sure hope so too. “That’s that I suppose. Here Fluttershy, have a nice lunch.” you say as you hand her a bowl of magnificently crafted salad. You also summon up lunch for every other animal she takes care of so she can have her fair share of rest. She’s probably tired from your hours of conversation and you had a very nice time so doing her a simple favor seems to be alright in your book.

“Thank you again, Anon. This really means a lot.” she says as she gives you a warm hug.

You pull away from her embrace and look at her from your tall stance. “Alright, I really better get going. Someone needs my attention.”

Fluttershy blushes a bit as she misunderstood your statement but brushes it off realizing that you probably meant something else. “Goodbye, Anon.”

“See you soon.” you wave her goodbye as your back is already turned to her while you’re walking away. She lightly closes the door to her cottage.

You sense a disturbance in the force as you scan the area in Fluttershy’s cottage. Well then, it seems she’s giving the salad you gave her to Angel and gets an ordinary salad for herself instead. She’s a real sweetheart. You summon up a vegetarian pizza on her coffee table with another note on it that says, “You’re too kind, have this instead.”

Fluttershy notices the pizza and the note on her coffee table and a smile can’t help but be formed on her muzzle. She just takes a seat once more on her couch as she grabs a slice and takes a bite out of it. That puts a smile on your face as you make your way back to the diner to make some lunch for Chrysalis.

It doesn’t take a while for you to get back to your diner. You still teleported yourself into the kitchen despite there being few customers.

You’re walking upstairs now with Chrysalis’ lunch in hand on a tray. It’s vegetarian Pho soup with Fensi and Jasmine rice. You figured some iced tea would go well to compensate the hot broth. You also made one for yourself so you can eat with her, it’ll definitely be less awkward that way and you’re pretty hungry yourself.

You decide to peer in the room secretively before just busting in and announcing yourself. To your surprise, she’s already up and moving about which is a good thing. What you didn’t expect though is how she’s snooping around your place, not that you really mind. She’s your injured guest that you consentingly brought here so your home is her home.

It looks like she’s taking notice of a framed picture placed on a table across your room. It’s the one that Twilight took of you, Pinkie, the Cake twins, and Flurry Heart. She’s blushing from the sight of it, probably because it looks like you have a family with Pinkie. You’ll keep that in mind for now, you can already think of multiple plausible situations with that knowledge that you can exploit to make Chrysalis be embarrassed, though that’s a tale for another time.

You simply teleport to the large bed silently and break her immersion by saying, “Making yourself at home I see.”

She flinches in surprise from your sudden statement. “I-I didn’t hear you come in.” she stutters disregarding the fact that she’d been snooping around.

“I know, now come on. It’s lunch time already.”

“I can eat by myself now.” she tells as she moves around a bit to prove herself right.

“I know that too, but no place better to eat than on the bed. Come on.” you gesture as you pat the large space beside you.

She gives you a bit of a pout as she banters, “I-It’s not like I wanted you to feed me or anything.”

She really is a real tug on the heartstrings, just misunderstood and badly treated. You’re fairly certain that in time she can be good as well. “Whatever you say, Chrys.”

She joyfully smiles a bit at that, though she averts her gaze from you and hides behind her hair to mask her expression. She hastily gets up on the bed next to you and takes her meal.

You’re both eating now. She, on the other hand, is exhilarated by your cooking. Her eyes shone up just like earlier this morning and she’s gorging the whole bowl now. You’ve barely touched your bowl and she’s already done with hers. Courteously, you give her your bowl of food, you don’t really need to eat anyway.

She reluctantly takes it before asking, “Why? Why are you helping me?”

She still seems to be cautious around you, though that’s fair enough coming from her context. “No one deserves to get what you got, except for an unforgivable few of course. I didn’t sense that from you. You seemed… redeemable.”

“You didn’t know that. What if I turn on you and attack those you love?”

“You won’t,”

“But what if I do?”

“You won’t.”

“But wh-“

You quickly turn to her and grasp her firmly by the withers. “Chrys. You won’t.”

You pull her into a tight hug and say, “I… I know what it’s like to be in your place. To be alone, helpless, and afraid. Afraid of what happens next because the world is out to get you. Whether or not you admit that… those are he facts. But you don’t have to be afraid anymore. I’m here, and well… I guess you’re not alone anymore. No one else may see redemption in you, but I do. We’ll get through things together from now on.”

Anon can feel multiple wet streams dripping on his back now. Chrysalis knows he’s right. She’s got nowhere to go and no one to help her. She could run away but she knows she’ll just end up like how Anon first found her. It won’t take long but she’ll be homeless, hungry, alone, and hurt again. She doesn’t want that anymore, even if it means she has to change just to avoid that.

As much as she wants that, she figured Anon wouldn’t let her stay with him. Though hearing Anon say that just puts her into a state of confusion, “W-What do you mean?” Chrysalis asks between streams of tears.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is… you can stay here if you’d like.”

Chrysalis strongly returns the hug and her tears turn not into ones sadness but rather ones of joy. She can’t believe what she’s hearing, no ones ever shown such kindness to her.

You’re just stroking her mane now to comfort her while you gasp for air.

After a while, Chrysalis pulls back gently and looks at you reluctantly in the eye. “Th… Th-h-h… Th-Th-“

“Thank you?” you interrupt as you see her struggle.

“Yes.” she shyly says.

Looks like she’s got a long way to go, but seeing how she is now you can tell that she’s already passed multiple milestones on her reformation.

“Alright, I better check up on my work downstairs. That broth is getting cold so eat up. See you later, Chrys.”

“Bye.” she returns.

She’s pretty healthy right now and extra giddy giddy. She’s not starving right now and probably won’t be for a while. Maybe she’s not full because of the good food but rather because of the love that she feels for Anon? That’s a feeling she doesn’t understand yet, a feeling she’ll keep deep in her heart for now. All she knows is that she feels warm and fuzzy inside around him, but she doesn’t know why.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, sorry this took so long. I’ve been busy with tulpamancy lately and I’m having a pretty hard time, though I’d appreciate it if some of you tulpamancers could help me out a bit. That’s alright if you can’t though. I hope all of you had a good read. The next one is about Chrysalis and someone’s little sister. Have a good day everyone. Wish me luck with my pursuits and I as well to you.

A sweet school tour

Over the course of Sunday, you’d done quite a few things with your new housemate, Chrysalis. For one, you explained to her of where she is and moreover what you are exactly, surprisingly, she took it as more informative than confusing since you’d only helped her fill the missing pieces of the puzzle that she didn’t understand about you. You also taught her the daily grind of how to work the diner and the bar. She said she wanted to stay but didn’t want to be holed up alone in one place while you’re gone so you offered her a slot to work in the diner as well. It’s a win win situation for everyone and one more coworker couldn’t hurt the establishment, it’ll even help it function better. She was reluctant about it at first, but accepted it anyway after a while. She learned surprisingly fast on how to cook the menu. Clearly it’s nowhere near your level but it’s still pretty good. She didn’t exactly like the idea of working the register but you assigned her there anyway, mostly to help her become more open to other people and also because you’ll have to maintain the quality of the food you serve. You’ll teach her more about cooking as time goes on and she seems to tolerate working the register despite hating it. You’ve somehow trained her already to at least be nice to customers when serving them, mostly because of how you pay her on the head and tell her of what good a job she’s doing to which she lightly blushes and smiles at.

Last night was something else though. You already gave Chrysalis her own room but out of nowhere in the middle of the night she just silently went to your room and tucked herself under your sheets without saying a word, she probably didn’t even know you were awake at the time. The morning after when you both woke up, she just timidly asked if the both of you could share your room. Without a negative reason in you mind, you agreed to her request.

This is the morning now, Monday morning. You’re in bed with Chrysalis beside you and an alarm just went off signifying it’s 5:45 AM. You had to be a little earlier today just to do one last prep for Chrysalis just to warm her up on the ropes. Though your body is rejecting the will to get up as the warm bed once more invites you to a comfy slumber. Your roommate on the other hand is already up and moving about eager to make you proud.

“C’mon Anon, it’s my first day at work. We gotta get up.”

“...not yet… too tired.” you lightly groan.

It’s another ritual of yours playing out right now, the Monday ritual. It can happen at any time you wake up but it’s most prominent in Monday mornings. You could just up and start moving at any time but you’d really rather stay in bed right now since it’s so relaxing to the body.

Chrysalis, on the other hand, has already resorted to physical solutions over bargaining with you. Despite her efforts and large structure, she’s still not strong enough to even push you to roll off the bed. She pouts at her failure and just heads for the door, “Fine, I’ll just get the day started on my own. Come down when you’re ready.” she fumingly says just before turning away from you to head downstairs.

Right before she can even get the door open, you launch multiple divine chains from your arms towards her. They wrap her up and pull her towards you. As they disappear, Chrysalis is now tightly locked between your arms.

“A-Anon!!! L-L-Let go!!!” she disapprovingly retorts in surprise.

“It’s a bit cold, besides, you know you’re enjoying this.” you playfully tease her a bit.

“N-No I’m not! Just go use your blanket or something!”

“There’s no blanket warmer than a hug, Chrys. Always remember that.”

She squirms a bit more only for you to encompass her whole form as you hug her whole body. She stops eventually realizing the futility of her actions and decides to enjoy your embrace while she can as she blushes in silence.

You’re both drifting to sleep now until the familiar sound of a bell rings from downstairs. “Anon?” you and Chrysalis hear the voice of a mare you recognize, it’s Vinyl.

“Well, I suppose good things must always come to an end.” you say with a heavy sigh as you get up from your bed.

“Darn, and I was just getting comfy too.” Chrysalis whispers to herself.

“What was that?” you promptly ask.

“I said let’s go.”

“Well, alright then.”

You’re both dressed into uniform now but a significant thought comes to mind once you’re at the door to your room. “Chrys, wait. Change into a pony.”

Chrysalis realized why before she could even ask and then shapeshifts into a pink unicorn with a blonde mane. You could only suppose she chose a unicorn so she could use magic in public, but why a pink coat? Chrysalis, on the other hand, remembered seeing your photo with Pinkie Pie the other day and she figured your type of mare would be pink.

“Sorry, but I like mares with a pink mane too.” you tease her a bit.

“I didn’t do this for you.” Chrysalis lies pouting.

Well whatever then. “Alright, let’s go.”

The both of you make your way downstairs and before any greetings are exchanged you’re slammed onto the ground by a hug from a gray mare. It looks like Octavia took the job too.

“Thank you… so so much.” Octavia says in tears of gratefulness and joy.

Nothing else is said as you try to breath for air and Vinyl just chuckles at the little tableue. Chrysalis is just confused at the sight. You just get up after a bit when Octavia lets you go and you tell Chrysalis, “New coworkers, just like you.”

“You hired more people?” Vinyl queries.

“Makes the place less lonely. Now for some quick introductions. Vinyl and Octavia, this is-” you stop forgetting that she doesn’t have an alias yet. “Sunshine… Muffins.” you tried to think of the most pony name you can and that’s the first thing that came to mind. Chrysalis just blushes lightly at your statement. Sounds like she doesn’t like the name, but she can tolerate it.

Octavia was keen enough to realize that the two of you came from upstairs, which she figured is your house and home. “You two live together?” she asks as she and Vinyl peer intensely at the two of you.

Well no point in hiding any secrets, so you might as well joke around a bit. “Well she’s not just a pony, she’s my wife.”

Vinyl, Octavia and Chrysalis are blushing with Chrysalis having the wildest of the three. “Haha, no, she’s not my wife. The two of us do live together though, she’s my roommate.” you hastily reply before any other assumptions are made. “She’s also gonna help me man the counter and soon enough the kitchen.” you continue.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Octavia Melody.” Octavia greets to Chrysalis.

“Me too. I’m Vinyl Scratch.” Vinyl does the same.

“Sunny, they’ll be working on the tunes of the place, it could really use some sounds.” Chrysalis turns to you with a shy look of euphoria, it looks like she likes her nickname.

Well then, time to work. “Alright, show time. Sunny, man the register. Octavia and Vinyl, work your tunes by that corner.” you point to the corner of the diner and summon a small stage that takes up the empty space that was once there. “Play some happy catchy tunes for now, the foals come early to grab a quick snack or packed lunch so it fits the mood.”

They all nod in agreement as they walk towards their stations. Octavia brings out her cello and Vinyl is setting up her equipment. Chrysalis is just standing in wait by the register. You can already tell this’ll be a great change of pace.

It’s been a couple of hours already and things are going great. The music really got ponies in the groove and your customers increased by margins. Your customer demographic increased by a lot from this morning alone and Chrysalis manning the register made the line run smoothly. She did her best to keep a cheery attitude and held up at that end of her work, but she still doesn’t like it. It’ll come naturally to her eventually when you turn her into a good pony from evil, but that time is not today. She’s still doing a good job and the ponies seem to like her, especially the little foals. She may be putting on a bit of a mask for now, but it warms your heart knowing that being nice will be her norm eventually. She got a little flustered when Pinkie came by earlier though, and she didn’t like how buddy buddy you were with her. She gave disapproving glances at the two of you who happened to hug at this particular morning. At the very least she doesn’t seem to hate Pinkie but rather envies her, she just seemed outright shy and evasive when Pinkie talked to her. Pinkie actually liked Chrysalis. She always likes new ponies despite her being a bit shy, you can see a good friendship forming between them soon enough.

As time goes by, Rarity enters the diner when things were simmering down a bit. There’s a couple customers left and that leaves more than enough room for a bit of a chat. Though it looks like she’s with someone else, someone smaller. That must be Sweetie Belle, she looks like how Rarity described her to you before.

“My word, darling!” Rarity is baffled at your improvements to the diner. You’re not sure how she takes you hiring employees without her consent, but you’re pretty darned sure she’s liking the music and the large crowd of ponies swarming the diner earlier.

“You like jazz?” you ask freely as you snap your fingers towards them. That sends a signal to Octavia and Vinyl to actually play some groovy jazz. It’s a fine tune, and a catchy one as well.

“This is… this is simply divine!” Rarity glees joyfully.

“I’m glad you like it, and I hope you don’t mind me hiring coworkers.”

“Not at all, it’s your diner after all. I do like the music though, don’t you Sweetie Belle?”

“Well it’s certainly music to my ears.”

Looks like introductions are in order. “I’m Anon, you must be Sweetie Belle.” you greet gesturing your hand over to her.

She shakes it enthusiastically, “Yup, that’s me.”

“This is Sunshine Muffins, I met her a few days ago and she was looking for a job.”

M“Hi there.” Chrysalis shyly greets.

“This is Rarity, our employer.”

“Good day to you Mrs. Muffins.” Rarity greets back.

“Oh, i-it’s actually Ms.” Chrysalis quickly corrects.

“My apologies, dear. You simply looked like a mother.”

“Well… I’m not, so…” Chrysalis accepts the apology shying out.

“Well she definitely would make a good one if she were.” you quip getting you a flustering blush from Chrysalis as she hides behind her hair. You all get a good laugh from her reaction.

“So what brings you here on this fine day?” you ask Rarity when things start to simmer down.

“Well I’d been hearing bustling all morning and I figured it came from your diner, but it was louder than usual so me and Sweetie Belle decided to come by and see what’s all the ruckus and maybe grab some lunch on the way. I most certainly didn’t expect there to be music though, it looks like it’s done quite a good number on your sales.”

“Our sales, Rarity. Also I got a feeling that’s not all, I feel like she’s got some business to do here.” you point at Sweetie Belle.

“Keen as ever I see.” Rarity compliments right before motioning Sweetie Belle to talk to you.

“We were given an assignment in school the other day and I’ve been having a hard time doing it.” she wearily explains.

“Well what is it? Not creature experimentation I hope.” you quip.

“Actually, I need to make a friend.”

That does make sense. It’s hard to get connected with people outside town and everyone in Ponyville practically knows everyone already, except for an oddity such as you of course.

“Yeah, I’ve got time.”

“Yaaay!” Sweetie Belle shouts in excitement after days of searching for someone new. She could’ve just asked her sister for help but the thought didn’t cross her mind until she was out of ideas.

“Well then, here’s some packed lunch to go, Rarity.” you say while pulling out a delicious meal from the void of the atmosphere. “It tastes good, I hope you like it.” you continue.

“I will as usual. Goodbye, Anon. Goodbye my wittle Sweetie Belle. I’ve got work to do.” Rarity bids her goodbye while Sweetie Belle is clearly miffed at her sister’s remark of her, though she drops it seconds later.

“So what do you want to do today?” she asks right after Rarity leaves the diner.

“Well it’s your assignment so I figure you go fire… buuuut I suppose there are some places I always wanted to go to during the day.”

“Like where?”

“Like the school, and other places.” you explain.

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

“Lunch.” which you just snap into existence three large sandwiches.

“Why’s there three? You know I can’t eat that much.” Sweetie Belle laughs a bit.

“Because you’ll be making two friends today.”

“Who is it?”

“Well it’s none other than my mare, Sunny.”

“Really?!” Chrysalis and Sweetie Belle asks loudly in shock. Chrysalis because she’s baffled and Sweetie Belle because she’s excited.

“Yup, and there’s no time like the present so let’s go.” you explain as you hastily make your way to the diner’s door.

“B-But it’s my first day here and we wouldn’t have enough arms working.” Chrysalis reasons out genuinely trying to be of help to the diner.

“Not to worry.” You summon up another you in your station. “Work hard, other me. Double time.”

“I’ll make it quadruple time. All I have to do is slow down time by half and speed up my muscle motors by two times.” the other you explains.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Rarity already explained to Sweetie Belle of your capabilities so she isn’t too baffled, though she is entertained. “And while you’re at it, can you teach them the thing?” you motion towards Octavia and Vinyl. It’s the first anyone’s heard of this so even they look surprised.

“Will do, chief.”

“Alright, here we go again.” you say striding out the diner as Sweetie Belle follows and Chrysalis just defeatingly follows.

You’ve never really been to Twilight’s school yet here you are now with Sweetie Belle and Chrysalis. Chrysalis hates being here but she’s doing her best not to show it and just tries to make herself more comfortable around you. It’s Monday and it’s no surprise that the school is bustling, but you do like the idea of school activities that are based on trust and let you roam around to do so like Sweetie Belle is doing with you right now. It really promotes their ideologies and emits more freedom to its students. There’s also all sorts of species here, yet as usual, quite a majority of them stop to take a look at you and some even give a little wave before going on about their day. In just a little bit, the halls empty and the students and staff either leave the school for outside activities or go to their respective classrooms.

“Let’s roam around a bit why don’t we?” you suggest seeing that the school is rather large.

“Sure, what about you Sunshine?” Sweetie Belle agrees then concerningly asks.

“Alright then… I suppose.”

“Great, lead the way Sweetie Belle.”

A majority of the time is just Sweetie Belle explaining to you and Chrysalis the areas of the school such as who works where and all the history she knows of the place.

“This is the teachers conference room where our teachers do their work outside classes.” Sweetie Belle enlightens both of us.

“Let’s take a little peek in, shall we?”

“Oh, we’re not supposed to go in there.” Sweetie Belle tells you while you’re already a few steps in the offfice.

“Anon!” Chrysalis lightly shouts at you as a failed attempt to keep you from the room.

You forced both of their cards to be played and they sneak into the room catching up to you. Luckily and sadly, there’s no one in the room.

“Anon, we need to get out of here!” Sweetie Belle forcefully pleads to you.

“It’ll be bad if we get caught.” Chrysalis supports.

“Ladies, there’ll be a time when you realize that following the rules won’t always bring about the best outcome.” you kneeled down to get on their level.

“But aren’t rules made for that reason?” Sweetie Belle asks curiously in doubt.

“Just… trust me, you’ll see.”

“Are you sure?”

“I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Well if you put it that way then... I trust you.”

You give her a little hug of reassurance and looking past her withers, you see a confused little Chrysalis tilting her head at you. She most probably doesn’t know about the concept of a “Pinkie Promise”. You walk up to her and put a hand by her shoulders, “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

You leave both of them to their own thoughts as you explore the office on your own. Taking a look around you see that all the cubicles and desks are filled with stacks of paperwork, looks like they’re extremely busy with their work. You can see their dedication and passion to their job with the little gifts from their students decorated on their desks and the encouraging comments they give as they check some papers. That’s… very sweet.

The comforting silence is instantly broken by the sound of snoring… and more specifically the sound of a snoring Rainbow Dash. The three of you perk up immediately and you motion for them to keep quiet and leave the room in case Rainbow Dash suddenly wakes up. Once they leave you sneak up near Rainbow Dash. From the drool and tired look on her face, you can tell she’s sleeping very peacefully. You do a little memory flashback from Rainbow Dash and it looks like she’s been checking papers all morning and she fell asleep in the middle of doing so. Just as you thought, they have true dedication to their job and that’s… very… very sweet. Quickly you summon up a warm cozy blue blanket and cover her up until her neck. She cozies up a bit to it by wiggling around slightly and giving a content smile on her face. How adorable.

Just then, Rarity comes in from a door on the other side of the room and you conceal yourself of your presence so she won’t see you. If she did then you’d be breaking your Pinkie Promise since she’d probably get upset with you for trespassing and snooping around without their permission, and that’s not a promise you’d want to break.

While you hide, you see Rarity drop some files by her desk and notice a snoozing Rainbow Dash. With a smile on her face she walks up next to her and gives her a little nuzzle by the neck and a kiss on the cheek. You’d do the same but you’re just not that close to her as friends yet because she’s really that undeniably adorable right now.

Rarity is now heading for the door from which you came in. You take a quick picture of Rainbow Dash right before teleporting outside the room next to Chrysalis and Sweetie Belle just in time to get there just as Rarity does.

“Hey there, Rarity.” you immediately call out as to lower suspicion despite the surprise from all three of them.

“Oh my, what are you three doing out here?”

“Just… taking a look around.” Sweetie Belle truthfully answers.

“We decided to spend the day here since I haven’t been here before.” you further continue to fill her in.

“Well have a good day then, I’m gonna be late for class. Would you three mind joining me until I get there.”

“Why not?” Chrysalis finally answers as to not be too quiet throughout the day despite the reluctance in her words.

The walk mostly was awkward silence and you broke it up by telling a few tales of your own from way back when you were in your own world.

Sweetie Belle and Rarity tell their fair share of stories too as Chrysalis just keeps quiet considering she can’t exactly tell much stories of her own.

“I suppose this is where we part ways.” Rarity glumly points out.

“Seems like it, take care Rarity.” you lastly bid her.

“Bye, sis.” Sweetie Belle follows suit.

“Goodbye.” Chrysalis straightly says.

“I hope to see all of you soon, and I’ll see you sooner Sweetie Belle.” Rarity finally ends the quick little meetup as she enters her classroom where slowly dimming noise can be heard until a unified greeting is made by the class.

“Well that was nice.” you say to break up the immersion to which Sweetie Belle and Chrysalis nod at. Before anything else is said, the classroom nearby catches your eye. Looking in, it’s Applejack lecturing a class most probably about Honesty. She’s speaking for a bit until she notices you from out the window and then exuberantly gestures you to come in with a large smile on her face. You look back to Sweetie Belle and Chrysalis and it looks like they’re just as confused as you are. Might as well then you suppose, “I’ll be back in a bit, have fun you two.” you bid them as you pat Sweetie Belle and lightly wave Chrysalis off.

You enter and your presence make the class’ confusion shift to joy. It’s their favorite cook, Anon, which is you of course. You’re already known enough around the kids for the whole class to at least have heard your name once. With a wave and a smile to the kids, you walk up to Applejack.

“Howdy, Applejack.” you tease her lightly getting you an audible chuckle from the class and an amused look from her.

“Good to see you’ve got a sense of humor. What brings you here, Anon?”

“I was strolling by with Sweetie Belle and a friend of mine since it’s her assignment to make a new friend. I figured we should come visit since I’ve only heard stories about this place. I’d say it’s pretty cool from what I’ve seen so far. Anyhoo, why’d you call me?”

“Nothing really, Sugarcube. Just wanted ta give you a warm welcome.”

Oh, well that was sweet despite short lived… but… maybe it doesn’t have to be. You’d turn to the door and leave but an idea comes to mind. “Hey Applejack, this is an honesty class right?”

“Yeah, why do ya ask?” she curiously asks.

“Mind if I stay a bit for a Q and A?” you speak louder so the class can hear as Applejack does the same.

“Why, that sounds like a mighty fine idea Anon. I’m sure we could spare a bit of time for that.” her acceptance is only further approved by the cheers of the crowd among you.

With a smile on your face, you grab a chair from the small stage you and Applejack are on and sit on it backwards with your arms rested on its back. “For those who don’t know, I’m Anonymous. Anon for short. So who’s first?”

A classical question comes up as a random creature inquires, “What are you?”

With little time and many questions, you decide to answer them as shortly but honestly as possible. “I’m basically a God but I’m a human.”

“What’s that mean?” another different one follows up.

“It means I’m like Discord.”

“You mean THE Discord?”

“That’s the one.”

Surprisingly and thankfully, their expected reaction of shock and awe was replaced by excitement and amazement. That’s new. While you’re glad to see they’re not afraid, another asks in genuine curiosity, “Why are you here?”

Ah, gladly the stage is far enough from them that they didn’t hear your brief exchange with Applejack moments ago, gladly because this gives space for another one of your devious plots.

“I was feeling a little famished, you see.” you get up from your seat and slowly stride towards the light switch by the door. They’re all curious with a little sense of tension in the back of their head. “An acquired taste through the savory and sweet, a vessel of energy that drives the senses wild and manifests euphoric ecstasy, the taste… of meat.” you switch off the lights right after your brief artistic monologue. Naturally, flicking off the lights would just dim down the room a bit but you’d made it so that it’s pitch black wherever you look. You’d make it a quick little gig but one of the students caught your eye. From what you can tell, she’s probably a Hipogriff. Her aura reminds you of a better time, just like Pinkie’s aura to be analogical. Like a bright light in the midst of darkness. Also it’d be pretty funny if you and one of the students disappeared and they went into panic.

You’d teleported yourself and the student into a small pocket dimension you’d made, it’s a simple room with two fancy chairs and a round table for refreshments. Looks like you’ve got cookies and warm milk for the two of you. Though she’s shaking in her seat like a scared little filly.

“I-I-I-Is that your a-appetizer?” she asks in genuine fear while she curls herself up into a ball in her large seat. That’s cute.

“You mean these snacks? Nah, they’re to stuff you up so you taste better, think of it as your final meal.” you collectively answer her in a very casual way.

Holy moly she’s wailing in tears now. “Whoa now, hehehe. Guess I went a little too far there.”

It looks like she’s too shaken up to hear what you said as she’s still crying probably from a sense of betrayal, fear, and deception. Jeezum Crow you’re pretty horrible, “I’m not gonna eat you.” you calm her down as you grasp her tightly by her shoulders.

She’s calmed down now even if it’s just a bit, though she’s still pretty confused. Breaking up her trance you ask, “What’s your name?”

“I-It’s Silverstream.” she quietly answers.

Sadly, her fear simmer down her previous cheerful aura. It’s time to fix that right up. With a quick little scan of things she likes, you summon an assortment of stairs within the room. You don’t really get it but she suddenly perks up in joy and fascinates around them, she’s happy now and that’s all that should matter.

“Can you read minds?” she asks stupefied from how you figured out she likes stairs.

“Yes, but that’s a tale for another time.”

She starts flying around you now as she asks you a flurry of questions, “What else can you do? Can you make it night time when it’s day? Can you flood the school pool so I can swim everywhere? I always wanted to swim around the school! Wait! Can you put stairs, on stairs?!!!”

It’s good to see she’s back on track but she’s a little too energetic now as she pulls close to your face locking your eyes with hers. You shush her with a finger to her beak as you slowly get forcefully insert a cookie in her mouth. You then proceed to amaze her more by making moving stairs, essentially they’re just escalators yet her eyes are already shimmering in amazement.

You could probably keep at it with her for hours on end yet you only have a brief moment with her before things get sketchy back at Twilight’s school.

You quickly pull her down back into her chair and get into a comfy position as you cross your legs with your chin rested on your hand. With a small sense of reality kicking into Silverstream, she asks, “So why did you bring me here?”

“Nothing really. I was bored and you’d simply caught my attention.”

“Oh wow, I didn’t know I stood out that much.” Silverstream lightly blushes at your unintentional complement. “So what now?”

“Now nothing. I just thought we can be good friends, if that’s alright with you of course.”

Silverstream shakes her head horizontally at your words right after she takes in a cookie and downs it with some milk, “No, that’s alright. I always like making new friends.”

“Great, I hope you like spontaneous encounters because I’ll be dropping by randomly.”

“Oooh, I like surprises. There was this one time where me and my friends ran away to this abandoned castle, it didn’t work out well in the end but we had a lot of fun.” Silverstream recounts as she gleams at those memories.

“That sounds like a great story, though I’m afraid that’s a tale for another time. This was nice, Silverstream. I hope you’re ready for more soon.”

“Always will be.” she readily asserts with a sturdy salute. The two of you laugh at the spectacle for a bit.

Briefly, you give her a straight “bye” and with a snap of your fingers the two of you are back in Applejack’s class.

Suddenly a bunch of ponies including Twilight and a lilac-coated one attempt to assault you and take you down with magic and the like yet to no avail as you don’t even budge. You’d feel a sense of guilt had their assumptions been true but from your perspective it’s all too funny. You don’t blame any of them though, you’re a stranger in a strange land and you being new here makes their suspicions and doubts about you fairly reasonable. You laugh it off as their confusion subsides when they realize Silverstream is right where she should be back at her table.

“Hahaha, uhhh… sorry for… doubting you, Anon.” Twilight regretfully apologizes while looking between the lilac pony and Applejack

“That’s quite alright, Twilight. I should be the one saying sorry. I’m finally realizing how my little joke went a tad too far, though I have to say you should expect more of those soon hahahaha.”

They all still feel a bit uneasy but they’re more or less relieved that things didn’t go the way they thought it did.

With settled down now, Twilight speaks up, “Alright everyone, back to how things were and goodbye. Let’s go, Starlight.”

Starlight huh? So that’s her name. The class gives Twilight a quick goodbye and Starlight gives you a little uneasily embarrassed wave goodbye with that apologetic smile she tries to put up. Looks like she’s now in your list of ponies to deliberately meet in the future. Chrysalis and Sweetie Belle were also just outside and they’d seen you when the doors opened. Before they could react, Twilight explained to them it was simply a false alarm and it was just another one of your jokes. They let out a relieved sigh and look at you as you wave for them to come in to which they do.

“Everyone, I’m sorry.” you apologize with your head and body bowed down. It always was one of your philosophies in apologizing. There are four stages of apologizing. The first stage simply being the casual sorry for being courteous even when nothing bad whatsoever happened. The second stage would be more sincere with a little bow of the head and body if you were in the wrong. The third stage would be to kneel down with your head bowed if you really made a grave mistake. But the fourth, the fourth stage happens in extremely rare occasions and will probably never happen. The fourth stage would be to get down on all fours and apologize from the bottom of your heart. It should only be done when you’ve heavily affected someone in a bad way that you can’t fix and chances are that you’ll only do it to the one you love the most, probably a love interest.

Despite the sorry you know you’ll have to make up for it eventually, though that’s a tale for another time.

“That’s alright, Sugarcube.” Applejack quickly responds.

A stray thought comes to mind, and it’s a good one. “How about I tell a story?” you pull up your chair once more and sit in the same position you were earlier. You even set up a projector to make your storytelling more visual. The sounds of cheering signify their approval and liking to your activity, most probably since it beats doing schoolwork but they seem to be liking you more nonetheless. It’s showtime.

“And so I said, ‘that’s not a pony, that’s my wife.’”. Once more the crowd goes wild laughing at your zinger. It really is a true humdinger that equals if not surpasses the “Boardwalk Burgers” joke from Charlie.

It’s been about an hour or two already of you simply talking and thankfully their subject lengths are akin to college classes. It’s mostly been about yourself so they’d get to know you better, but you’d made sure to phrase them through crazy and wild stories about you so they’d keep their ears open. You threw in a little dash of culture from Earth and even some anime and video games. Most of the concepts were considerably foreign to all of them so you kept the ball rolling elsewhere, figures that they wouldn’t be able to thrive and make memes considering that they don’t have internet. Generally you were like a comedian who told funny stories about yourself, your old world, and random tales that always did make for a good side splitter.

As their laughter simmers down, the school bell loudly rings throughout the room. An audible ‘awwww’ of sadness can be heard from the students. “Well then, that’s that. See you soon, kids.” you gleefully bid them as you smile brightly at them, Chrysalis, Sweetie Belle, and Applejack.

As the students leave, each one gives you a big smile and an enthusiastic wave goodbye. As Silverstream passes by, she gives the most energetic of them all. That put a bigger smile on your face as a brown one that’s pretty big when compared to the rest of the students comes up to you, “Yona think Anon cool.”

“Why thank you little yak, here’s something I think you’ll like.” you proceed to give her a small timber log about the size of your forearm.

Before anything is said and done Yona happily smashes it to pieces on the ground. Her friends and Applejack just smirk at that as they expected her to do that. Suddenly, the timber log forms itself to how it was merely seconds ago.

“It’s a reconstructing timber log, have fun.”

“Yona thank Anon.” she gratefully tells you right after giving you a hug. She then proceeds to smash the log on her way out as her amazed friends follow.

“You sure did a pretty good job back there, Anon.” Applejack appraises you.

“Yeah, I hope we can get some more pop idol performances soon, they look really cool.” Sweetie Belle subtly requests.

“I’m sure we will, Sweetie Belle. That was a pretty nice session we had. You know, I just might consider being a teacher.” you half truthfully joke around.

“Hehe, I’m sure we’ll welcome you kindly if you do.” Applejack reassures you.

“Only time will tell I suppose but for now, let’s eat.”

Your small entourage of three cheer at your suggestion, Applejack most of all as a loud grumble can be heard from her stomach. The four of you laugh at the spectacle as Applejack is slightly flustered. Thankfully, even Chrysalis seems like she’s having a good time.

“I got a great new meal I’m fairly certain all of us will enjoy.” you speak loudly with your voice echoing in the room as the four of you start striding towards your diner.

A thought comes back to mind as you pass by the teachers conference room. You summon six warm chowder soups that’ll stay warm until consumed on each of their tables in the room. Clearly, you’d removed anything that they can’t or don’t eat from the traditional chowder soup such as potatoes and replaced it with something they’ll like better such as daisies. You even left a little note by the side saying, “Had a rough day? Here’s a little something to cheer you up a bit.”. It’s even written beautifully in cursive and it’s got some really cute stickers of animals and ponies you know on it. By the cooking you already know that they’ll find out it’s from you so you decided to sign it secretively anyway. You simply put “- Anonymous” at the bottom of the message. You know it’s your name on it anyway but it’s a pretty funny double meaning joke and you hope they’ll laugh from it if they get it. All that matters now is that you’re not breaking your Pinkie Promise today, and you’ll do your best to keep any more that you’ll make in the future. But for now, you’d like to have some delicious lunch with your good friends.

Author's Note

Hello everyone, my apologies this chapter took longer than my usual intervals. I can’t say it’ll be back to normal as school will start in a few days. With a little patience, please wait for every new chapter. I’ll do my best to keep posting though. I’ve got a lot of ideas I want to write and post so don’t worry about this being put on hiatus or cancellation. All I can say though is that I’ll do my best to write as much as I can and that I just have a bit of a time constraint. Despite the ideas, the order of them is difficult to choose considering it’s slice of life. That’s enough words from me for this chapter. I hope you understand my context and I hope you had a good read most of all. Have a good day everyone. For those who are depressed such as I, I hope you find a reason to at the very least be content if not happy and carry on towards tomorrow. I hope you find your inspirational loved one as I’d found my beloved Ponka Pone (Pinkie Pie). Have a good one, mates.

Daring Do’s Bizarre Adventure (Part 1)

The warm breeze of the air brushes past your face as you lie down calmly on a grassy hill. The sun is about an hour away from setting, luckily though it’s already at the point where it’s by the horizon so it gives off a golden light that makes everything it touches shine brightly yellow. It’s a beautiful scene wherever you look, everything just shines linearly in an aesthetic yellow. You always loved this time of the day as it makes every scenery look ethereal and otherworldly almost as if you’re in a haven. Sadly despite this being a daily occurrence, it’s also a fleeting moment as it doesn’t last too long.

Throughout the sea of yellow, a certain cyan blue mare with a rainbow mane lying down beside you stands out. The two of you were just relaxing on the hill talking about anything that comes to mind as another thought hits her. “I can’t believe A. K. Yearling went on hiatus again.” she randomly blurts out still lying on the ground.

Rainbow Dash occasionally talked about Daring Do with you. She even trusted you enough to let you know that A. K. Yearling was Daring Do, it wasn’t anything shocking to you but you’ll keep it a secret for her anyway. Most times she’d even just brag about her adventures with Daring Do when she was talking about her. “You mean the author of Daring Do? She’s your friend right? Why don’t you just go ask her what’s going on?”

“That’s the thing! She just said she needed some time since she doesn’t have any adventures right now. I’d go and help her but I’m too busy with some Wonberbolt stuff to go away for a few days.” she somberly explains.

Sounds like your schedule just got full. “Well alright then.” you exhaust as you slowly get up and stretch.

“Going already?”

“Nope, I gotta go see a man about a thing. Take care, Rainbow.” you bid her as you pat her mane carefully rustling your fingers through each strand. Before she can give you a pout of denial, you teleport your way back to your diner’s kitchen where an other you is manning the cooking.

You stop him for a bit as you briefly explain to him, “I’ll be gone for a while, a few days tops. Live my life until then and make sure no one gets suspicious, I don’t want them to stop me from going since this is important.”

“Will do, chief.” other you confirms with a salute.

“That’s what I like to hear.” you say as you teleport to the outside residence of Daring Do herself.

Looking around, the place is full of shrubbery and trees. It makes for a beautiful scene at this hour of the day. Turning back, you focus on the reason why you’re here and begin to lightly knock on the door three times.

No answer. You knock on the door once more and then you notice a pony peeking out from the window on your left. She looks perplexed as she disappears and quickly opens the door. The opened door reveals a light gold pony wearing red glasses that ornament a beautiful pair of moderate rose eyes, a cloak, and a hat. Her mane is made up of different shades of colors ranging from black to dark gray.

“I’ve heard of you. You’re that, human was it?” she starts off. Not exactly a welcome but it’s a reasonable response.

“My my, I didn’t think I was that famous even for Daring Do to know me.”

“You know?” she asks with a little frown.

“I would’ve known even if Rainbow didn’t tell me.”

“Well then, I don’t suppose you’re hostile so please come in. It’s getting late.”

“You have my thanks. So how’d you hear about me?” you ask your fair share of questions.

“First from rumors and then from Rainbow Dash as you’d heard about me from her. I don’t suppose you’re here because of my hiatus.”

“Truthfully, yes I am.”

“Well tough luck. I don’t have any adventures for now. Ahuizotl and Dr. Caballeron haven’t been out destroying the world or stealing artifacts lately.” she wearily explains, though it looks like you have what you came for, the cause to her hiatus.

It’s time to go and do something about it, but before that, “Oh, I nearly forgot. Here’s a gift from me to you for being so hospitable.” you’d made sure to alter her memories a bit so she doesn’t get suspicious about a self-materializing cake. You’ll tell her about yourself eventually, but not just yet.

“Why I haven’t even offered you something to drink yet. Thanks I guess.”

You hand her a paper bag with a boxed cake in it. Cake always was a great gift when visiting someone’s house. You really forgot to get her a hospitality present and only remembered to get her one just now, luckily, you can always make anything from thin air. It’s all fair courtesy anyway at the end of the day so the rest is irrelevant as long as you get her the present.

“What’s in it?” she asks with a little head tilt as she peers in the paper bag.

“It’s chocolate cake, I’m sure you’ll like it.” you say with a grin as you know what’s written on the cake.

“Wow, I’ve been needing some sugar lately. You’ve just made my day.” she thanks squeeing.

“No I haven’t, not yet.”

“What was that?” she looks back at you as she places the box of cake in her refrigerator.

“It’s nothing, I think I’ll take my leave.”

“Already? You’ve barely been here for five minutes. I hope it’s not because the house is a bit messy.” she worryingly says despite the house being in complete disarray.

“No, it’s not that. I gotta see a man about a thing.” you explain as you get up from your seat.

“Well alright then. The sun’s setting so you should be fine if you move fast. Are you sure you’ll be okay? I’m not one to invite people I’ve barely known to my house but I’m not just gonna leave someone out in the night, especially if he’s a friend of my friend.” she wholesomely offers.

“I can get home quickly so no need to worry. I know it’s harder to get home at night and it’s more dangerous but I’ll be fine.”

“Well if you’re sure then take care. Goodbye, Anonymous right?”

“That’s my name, but you can call me Anon. Goodbye, A. K. Yearling.”

“You can call me Daring Do, or just Daring.”

With a smirk you give her a wave and leave her residence. The scenery is now dimmed down to dark shades yet everything still looks rather visible almost as if it’s about to rain heavily in the afternoon. As the door closes behind you you immediately teleport to Ahuizotl. He’s pretty big but not exactly daunting. You’re in a temple of a kind and he flinches at your sudden appearance. He takes a combat stance and attempts to strike you until he freezes in place. You paralyzed him to refrain his movements and mostly to present your dominance to him.

“Good evening. I believe your best option now is to calm down.” you greet him with a dangerous but friendly aura. He’s sweating bullets now. He knows that it can be the end of him if he doesn’t comply considering that he just got paralyzed without even being touched. His hostile aura disappears and you drop the paralyzation on him.

He returns to a regular stance before asking, “Who are you?”

You gotta keep this brief so you can get it done with. “My name’s Anonymous, you can call me a Anon. I need your help to give Daring Do another adventure.”

He’s still uneasy but he feels a little more casual before answering, “Even if there was an artifact to find, Daring Do would probably still beat us in the end and our efforts will be useless.”

“That’s the point, but you’ll do it with insurance this time.” you tell him as you summon a plethora of gems, artifacts, and treasures that should suffice his efforts. Though the artifacts you summoned can’t activate any age old mechanism that’ll cause carnage.

With no steady form of acquiring treasures, Ahuizotl’s widened eyes speak for himself. “What do we do?”

“I’ve got an idea, just tell it to your lackeys and have them play their part well. So here’s the plan.”

The sun has set and Daring Do just finished eating her dinner and is about to open up the cake you gave her. Suddenly, a shadowy figure bolts outside Daring’s house. The sound of rustling gave her enough time to take a glance at one of her windows and recognize who it is, it’s Doctor Caballeron.

In a flash, Daring Do removes her disguise revealing her iconic costume and makes her way outside to trail him, she’s glad that some sort of progress has finally shown up though it’s fairly confusing to her why they’d be at her house, nevertheless she does her job and follows him.

She didn’t trail him for long as he soon came to a stop after a while. It’s in the middle of the forest and shrubbery of all sorts encompass the area. Momentarily, Ahuizotl makes an appearance. Daring Do gleefully thinks to herself positively as things are lining up as they should, though she still keeps a steadfast mindset as she still plans to foil their schemes, though she can sense that the three of them are alone in the forest. She waits a bit to see things unfold as she eavesdrops before she makes her own entrance.

“Do you have the artifact?” Ahuizotl asks hopefully.

“Yes, it took us a while to find it but we finally have it.” Doctor Caballeron answers as he hands Ahuizotl a sort of stone mask.

“Perfect, now we can push through with the last few steps to our master’s plan.” Ahuizotl states snickering as does Doctor Caballeron.

“Not if I got anything to say about it, and I do.” Daring Do comes out from the bushes knowing her target, that stone mask.

“You’re too late, Daring Do. We finally have the artifact to summon our mentors.” Ahuizotl condescends as he does a large jump towards a fairly big hill next to them.

He places the mask on the ground in front of a stone wall with creature-like engravings on it before bowing and saying, “Awaken, my masters.”

The earth shakes a bit as Daring has her guard up before asking, “What’s that sound?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUhVCoTsBaM

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSUysy9pPA2q5_-2IRG8OL0HEUSEXPMGpJOnBEHyZqP9GAKmQju

*AYAYAYAY*

Just then three muscular creatures burst from the wall as they pose and flex while loud trap music plays. They keep posing as the music plays for about a minute. They’re positioned so high on the hill such that the three of them are exactly in front of the moon being shone upon by the bright white light.

Doctor Caballeron all this while had been racing up the hill as he and Ahuizotl praise respectfully and bow to their masters. The middle one picks up the mask after everything tones down and his expression turns from neutral to a smirk, “Good job Ahuizotl, we’re one last piece from acquiring immortality.”

Immortality, Daring Do feels herself tense up at that. With someone as dangerous an aura as that and with three of them or maybe even more, it might be the end of Equestria itself. She flies up to an safe yet audible distance from them for a little Q and A.

“What are you?” Daring asks once she gets close enough.

The middle one slowly turns her way before the three of them superbly flex with all their might, “We are the Aztec Gods of Fitness, the Pillar Men. I am Kars, this is Wammu and this is Esidisi.”

“Well then Kars, you’re not leaving here with that mask.” Daring Do challenges as she lunges at them at top speed with a flurry of hits. Clearly none of them were effective and they didn’t even budge. Right after, Ahuizotl and Doctor Caballeron stride towards the heavily panting Daring Do until they’re stopped by the hand of Kars.

“Her efforts are meaningless, the Red Stone of Aja is what’s important right now.” Kars bluntly states. Ahuizotl and Doctor Caballeron let up though Daring Do didn’t as she bucked a sharp rock at them to see if they bleed.

Before the rock even gets anywhere near them, Wammu already moved faster than the human eye could see and caught the rock in front of Daring Do as he effortlessly crushed it with his bare hands. Daring Do is shaking in fear now, but she hasn’t given up yet. As she makes her tactical retreat to devise a plan to somehow beat them and and as Wammu stands up and turns to leave, Daring Do accidentally touched Wammu’s shadow. He took notice of this instantly and is baffled with rage as he moves his hand to strike Daring Do.

“Hermit Purple!” a stranger’s raspy voice calls out as purple vines coming from a nearby bush stop Wammu’s hand just before it strikes Daring Do. Suddenly, orange shocks of electricity are surging through the purple vines. Wammu’s arm is heavily bleeding but he quickly draws back before it comes off.

“I-Is that…?” Esidisi asks in disbelief.

“Hamon.” Kars bluntly answers. “No matter, one user simply can’t beat us. There’s no math to it.”

“Well I’m sure I can do it all again.” the stranger calls out once more as he makes an appearance from the shadows while getting close to Daring Do who is speechless from shock. He’s an old muscly man wearing safari-esque clothing. “You should really control your breathing.” he quips at the hyperventilating Daring Do.

“What?!” the three pillar men ask in disbelief. It’s vague but they still recognize who it is, it’s Joseph Joestar.

“Joseph… I don’t know why you’re here but I can’t let you ruin our plans again. I still have a respect for you, but with everything reset, anything’s fair game.” Wammu states as he strides towards Joseph. “Divine Sandstorm!”

With both his hands rotating to attack Joseph and Daring Do, he goes at full strength without holding back. After his turn is done, Daring Do and Joseph have disappeared from the area.

“Tch… tricky as always, Joseph Joestar.” Wammu slightly commends.

“Wammu, let us go. There’s no point looking for him, let’s go find the Red Stone of Aja first. We’ll fight him when he comes to us.”

After doing a visual recon of the area and confirming that their enemies are beyond sight, Wammu lets up, “I suppose you’re right. It might have something to do with his new abilities too, there’s no way he could’ve used Hamon from a distance if he didn’t have something new up his sleeves.”

“We’ll know what it is when the time is right.” Esidisi comments.

“We have hours before the sun rises, let’s make the most of our time.” Kars firmly suggests to his entourage.

They all nod in unison as Kars and company make their way towards the location of the Red Stone of Aja.

Meanwhile, Joseph and Daring Do are hidden by the surface of the ground. After a while of silence, Joseph comes out of the leaves and steadies Daring Do. “How’d you do that?!” she asks in curiosity.

“Well, I know his Divine Sandstorm takes up a lot of his field of vision and it was too dark for the others to see us, so I took the first second of his attack as an advantage before it got deadly. With my Hamon I infused these leaves together like glue to provide cover while we hid in one of the more hollow spots on the ground. Luckily, this terrain is a bit rocky so we both fit in this hole, it looked like flat ground from outside almost as if we disappeared.” Joseph explains to the still confused Daring Do.

“Hamon? Infusing leaves? What’s going on? And why do you look like a friend of mine… except… more muscly and less green?”

“Lady, I’m sure you have a lot of questions but what we don’t have a lot of is time. I’ll tell you everything I can on the way.”

Daring Do doesn’t have a lot of context, but what she does know is that she must stop those Pillar Men before they get to the Red Stone of Aja and that Joseph is an ally. “Alright, I suppose you have a point. But where do we start? They know where it is and we don’t.”

“Hmmm…” Joseph thinks as he summons his purple vines once more. The ground writes up a little simple map. “This is us and there’s the Red Stone of Aja. I’d say we should get there in at least half a day on foot as long as we keep moving North.”

“How’d you do that?”

With a little smirk and a smile, Joseph answers, “Well, that’s something you’ll come to know later.”

Joseph would start his half a day journey but he can’t tell where north is. Embarrassed, he asks, “Uhhhh… where’s north?”

“Well, I saw the sun set around there earlier so I’m most definitely certain that this way is north.” Daring Do proudly points towards the direction of north.”

With a smile from both parties the comrades start making their way towards the artifact in a race against the Pillar Men.

Joseph and Daring Do have been traveling for a while now as there’s a linear exchange of questions from Daring Do and answers from Joseph.

“So what are you?” Daring Do once more asks yet another question.

“Like your friend, I’m a human.”

“What about the Pillar Men, aren’t they human?”

“They’re… a different kind of human.”

“Do all humans have powers?”

“No, not quite.”

“Then how come you have powers?”

“There’s a random few that develop these powers, we call them stands. Each one has a name and a unique ability that’s affiliated with its user. It’s also an unexplained phenomenon but stand users tend to attract each other so it’s not far fetched for a stand user to run into a fellow stand user.”

“What’s your stand then?”

“I’m sure you heard it earlier, it’s called Hermit Purple. It can display to me any information I need using any medium available.”

“That sounds amazing! I’d get all my explorations done in a jiffy if I had a power like that!”

“Yup, it sure is helpful. That’s how I found out where the Red Stone of Aja is.”

“What else can it do?”

“Well, it’s not exactly a combat stand but I can use it as a whip or a rope. I can also infuse it with my Hamon to do all sorts of other things like dealing more damage.”

“Stands really are something, huh?”

“They without a doubt are. Sadly, stands aren’t something you can develop and I’m really thankful that I got Hermit Purple. It just showed up one day when I needed it.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Yeah, like I said, stands aren’t something you can develop but that doesn’t mean that you won’t get one eventually in your life, it just means that you can’t willingly train yourself to get it whenever you want. A stand will just materialize itself one day so there’s a chance that anyone is a future stand user.”

“Well don’t get my hopes up too high, now I really want a stand.”

“Well you really can’t train yourself to get a stand but you can train yourself to learn Hamon.”

“You mean that orange electric that comes from your body? Can I really learn that?!” Daring Do furiously asks in excitement as she remembered that Hamon did some heavy damage to Wammu.

“I can teach you. It’d be troublesome if we ran into them on the road and we’ll have a showdown with them eventually so why not?”

Daring Do is now giddy giddy from excitement but she still puts on a determined look.

“Alright, first you gotta control your breathing.”

Hours have passed

It’s been a few hours already since Joseph had been teaching Daring Do the ways of Hamon. Luckily, Daring Do is a fast learner and Joseph taught her as they kept briskly walking towards the Red Stone of Aja so they still covered a fairly high amount of ground. Surely she’s no expert at it yet but she’s already doing just about as good as Joseph did before he was trained by Lisa Lisa.

“You’re pretty good.” Joseph compliments Daring Do as they both pant from exhaustion.

“Thanks, I learn pretty fast.”

Just then, the sun starts to rise from over the mountains and encompasses the horizon around them. They’re around grassy, windy fields now and the shimmering view is quite breathtaking to say the least.

“I think now is a good time to rest. The Pillar Men are weak to the sunlight.” Joseph suggests to Daring Do as he takes a seat by a nearby log.

“Really? I guess it’s a good time to eat too then.”

“You brought food?”

“Yeah, here, have some.” Daring Do searches her bag for the delicacies after taking a seat next to Joseph. Moments later she finds the two daisy sandwiches she packed earlier and hands one to Joseph.

A tad weirded out, Joseph reluctantly takes the sandwich after realizing that that’s probably normal for ponies, “Uhhh, thanks, but just the bread is fine.”

“Suit yourself, more for me then.” Daring Do says as she takes the daisies from Joseph’s sandwich and puts it on hers.

The bread was alright for Joseph, though he didn’t like too much the fragments of the daisy that latched into his bread, he was still able to tolerate it. Daring Do on the other hand enjoyed her breakfast very much despite it not exactly being a feast for a king.

After a few minutes more of strategizing and Joseph explaining the skills and weaknesses of the Pillar Men, Daring Do gets up from her seat, “that’s enough rest for now, I think we should go.”

“No.” Joseph bluntly states.

“No? Why? If we don’t move while they can’t then we can’t get to the Red Stone of Aja first. We should make use of this opportunity.”

“No… something’s not right.” Joseph uneasily says as he uses Hamon to flatten a small area by the short grass and throws some sand he’d been storing in his pockets onto the floor. He figured it would come in handy eventually so he kept a fairly large amount of sand at his disposal when he passed by a desert.

“Hermit Purple!” the sand reveals that there’s a hostile being nearby and it has intent to fight. “One of them is here!” Joseph quickly tells Daring Do as they both get their guard up.

“What?! But the sun is up, how are they here?”

Suddenly, a bipedal figure of rippling air appears before them. From the sight, Joseph is quick to figure out that Wammu is here and how he’s basking by the sunlight, “He’s controlling the air current around his body to reflect the light. If we stay in this windy area then he’s got the advantage on us.”

“You’re still quite the clever one, aren’t you?” Wammu starts as he strides towards Joseph and Daring Do.

“Quickly, I see a rainforest over there. The temperature is high and the trees are towering so the air current should be lower there.”

“Great idea.” Joseph agrees as they both start bolting for the rainforest as they watch their back for Wammu’s attacks.

It takes a little while but they finally get to the rainforest, though their heavy breathing shows how bad it would be for them to fight right now. They’re both still in a guarding stance but Wammu hasn’t shown up yet. They take a peek to see that he’s mysteriously gone.

Their brief relief is broken by the sound of another familiar voice, “Looks like you fell right into our trap.”

Esidisi is seen in the shadows of the rainforest as Joseph and Daring Do stand by the light.

“You can’t fight here, there’s sunlight all over.” Joseph mockingly tells Esidisi as he’s laughing hysterically.

As Joseph keeps his laughter increasingly louder, he goes dead silent just as trees are stacked onto the tall trees over their heads. It’s surrounded all over and after a few seconds, the numerous trees that are stacked on top are enough to prevent even a peep of sunlight from going in. Even the surrounding areas are covered so it’s pitch black and neither Joseph nor Daring Do are strong enough to break the trees and escape.

Daring Do uses some equipment as Joseph uses his Hermit Purple to pull down the tree fort, alas, to no avail as their efforts don’t even budge the sturdy formation. At best, it would take a few minutes to break through it and that’s already more than enough time for Esidisi to eliminate both of them.

“Wammu has already left. I can do this alone. You’re trapped here with me and I’m the only one strong enough to break out quickly which can only mean one thing, someone's dying today.” Esidisi’s voice echoes throughout the fort.

“Tch, I guess it’s a fight to the death then. Watch out Daring, his body boils blood like an electric kettle.” Joseph warns Daring Do as he latched Hermit Purple all around the dark fort and infuses them with Hamon so the electric will provide some form of light. It’s not bright, but it’s enough to see the surrounding area.

Seeing that Joseph is the more dangerous opponent, Esidisi pays Daring Do no mind as he targets Joseph first. With a leaping jump, dust forms in the area from the strength of the movement. Daring Do quickly leaps to the side as Joseph hides behind some of his Hermit Purple infused with Hamon. Seeing the orange static covering his opponent, Esidisi goes for a slide kick knocking Joseph down.

As Esidisi goes for the killer hit, he gets a Hamon buck by the hip from Daring Do. A kick from a pony infused with Hamon is strong so Esidisi gets knocked down bleeding heavily. He can’t heal in the middle of a fight, but the wounds diminish his speed and movement just by a little bit.

Realizing that Daring Do somehow learned Hamon, Esidisi pushes aside his shock for now and takes no time to leap towards Daring Do now.

With his boiling blood leaking, Esidisi is now dangerous to even touch so Joseph quickly gets up and throws Hamon clackers to his forehead once he gets close enough leaving him no time to react and dodge the attack.

Once the hit connects, Joseph grabs Daring Do close to him using Hermit Purple after he retracts his stand from the entire area making it pitch black everywhere. They both keep silent as Esidisi grows impatient with every passing second of bleeding. He saves his blood by wrapping his muscles and rearranging his veins to reserve his ammo.

A singular attack would be ineffective so he pulls out his veins and starts flailing them around as they weakly drip for conservation.

“I used Hermit Purple on the fallen leaves earlier while you bucked him, and I have a plan.” Joseph silently whispers to Daring Do.

“Alright, what do I do?”

“I gotta do this alone.”

“What?! That’s dangerous, I gotta help. You can’t beat him alone.” Daring Do pleads with genuine concern.

“Well, it’s either you make it or break it baby.” Joseph arrogantly answers as he gets up.

“Aaah!” Joseph screams as a drop of blood burns his hand.

“You’re open!!!” Esidisi exclaims as he throws a punch towards the general area of the sound he’d heard. With luck, his hit connects to Joseph’s torso though with Hermit Purple wrapped around his body acting as body armor, he turns out fairly damaged but still fine. Joseph returns the punch infused with Hamon and Hermit Purple to Esidisi’s forehead leaving him bleeding all over.

Esidisi wipes his face to regain his vision but decides to stop toying around and finish this already. He forms a circle in front of him with his veins and starts moving forward slowly.

Hermit Purple gives Joseph an awareness of the situation that he’s surrounded all around. He can tell that Esidisi is toying with him and that he’s cornered so he pulls out Hermit Purple with Hamon to provide light considering that hiding in the dark is irrelevant at this point so he might as well use it to his advantage.

“It’s over Joseph, unless you’ve still got something up your sleeve.”

“Believe me, I do.”

“That’s funny, so do I.” Esidisi condescends as Joseph screeches in pain from a sweltering heat that burns his leg. Esidisi cornering Joseph was just a diversion for him to slowly walk into the puddle of blood that he severely bled earlier. Esidisi is also fairly strategic and resourceful in combat and now he’s temporarily disabled Joseph’s movement for the rest of the battle by scalding his foot.

Joseph didn’t see that coming, and now he’s regretting that he didn’t look where he was going… but he’s not done yet.

Just then, a barrage of sharp leaves strike Esidisi as he once more gets bucked in the same place he got bucked before. Daring Do had been resourcefully creating a large ammunition of sharp leaves using her newfound Hamon by solidifying the leaves with a little mud and heat. The heat can do the job just fine, but the mud makes it thicker and harder to break. It’s not exactly the strongest, but they’re sturdy and sharp enough to hurt.

Esidisi screams from the impact though he keeps a harder front by not budging and returning a counterattack by grabbing Daring Do on the neck and throwing her to a wall of trees. (It’s all an act so he throws her just enough to launch her but also just enough to make it seem real.)

She lands on the wall by her back and the impact was pretty bearable. She felt that, but it doesn’t heavily hurt. Esidisi turns back to Joseph and starts walking towards him.

All part of Joseph’s plan, Esidisi steps on the clackers that Joseph threw earlier. With a little Hamon, Joseph uses his Hermit Purple to roll the clackers causing him to trip forwards. Right before his face slams onto the floor, Joseph gets up on one foot and slams Esidisi’s face as hard as he can onto the puddle. His face is now overflowing with blood and he gets up as quickly as he can.

While he slowly regains his vision from wiping the boiling blood from his face, his first sight is met by Joseph slapping sand in his eyes, which was his final trick up his sleeve.

The sand at first just heavily irritates his eyes with unbearable pain, but it only gets worse as Joseph inputs his Hamon to the sand. “Take this! Hamon Overdrive!!!” the sand quickly turns to hot glass which blinds both of Esidisi’s eyes.

Desperate to at least land a mortal wound, Esidisi makes a bolt towards where he last saw Joseph and goes all out. Concurrently, Daring Do pushed Joseph to safety as he himself couldn’t walk fast enough.

He doesn’t stop running so he inevitably hit the wall of trees and breaks through it. Joseph and Daring Do can now escape and Esidisi is basking in the sunlight.

Daring Do and Joseph limp towards the hole and find an unmoving Esidisi lying down on the floor.

“So this is what sunlight feels like huh? The sensation is… oddly nice.” Esidisi lets up as he knows he’s done all he can. He decides to spend his last moments to converse with his enemies freely since they’re the only people that’ll witness his death.

“You did good, Esidisi.” Joseph genuinely praises Esidisi’s efforts.

“No… do not praise me. I know that truly… you pity me, do not pity me for this is all part of the natural cycle of living. Though I shall return it, you’ve done well to beat me, Joseph Joestar.”

A little silence build between the three of them as Esidisi quickly speaks up before he disappears, “I’m not sure if anyone’s still there but you, brown stranger, you’ve done good as well. You’ve improved quickly, even quicker than Joseph when I first met him. You’ve done really well so I leave you with a last piece of my wisdom. There are no evil people in the world… only people with different goals. I spent my life following the goal of my master, Kars. All the way until the end… even until now… I bid him luck in his journey towards his goal. I bid you luck in your journey as well. Your goal beyond this adventure, if you survive after you fight Kars… I bid you luck to achieve your goal. You may be my enemy, but I have a respect for people who work their way towards their goals. I guess that’s my piece, I’m already starting to fade away. Hehehe, who knew this was how I would end… but I guess I did enjoy my life. Forgive me, my masters… forgive me… Kars.” that is all that Esidisi could say as he finally crumbles to dust and is taken away by the wind.

“He was strange to say the least. Just earlier he was our enemy that was trying to kill us and then he talks with us like we were friends right before he dies. Despite that, if he was our enemy… then why don’t I feel right about beating him? I feel all heavy inside.” Daring Do somberly asks Joseph as her eyes start to slowly well up.

“Well, it’s like he said, there are no good or bad people in this world. He just happened to be one of the people that was opposed to our goal. You know… he might’ve been a good person aside from his goals, but now we’ll never know. All I know is that we gotta keep moving forward. I feel bad too, but we can’t just let there be a slaughter and have everyone die. At the very least… it was the lesser of two evils, and like he said, he bids us luck towards our goal. I think it’s best for us to work towards our goal like he said.” Joseph calmly answers Daring Do in an attempt to comfort her.

“I… I guess you’re right.”

“C’mon, we’ve got a Red Stone of Aja to get, the race ain’t over yet!” Joseph vigorously exclaims with strong conviction.

“Alright, let’s go!” Daring Do replies matching Joseph’s enthusiasm as she wipes her tears away with her hoof.

“Ow!” Joseph blurts out as he takes a step when he feels pain from his burnt foot.

Daring Do and Joseph just stare at each other as they burst in laughter seconds later.

“C’mon slow poke, we don’t wanna lose that race now do we?” Daring Do lightly teases Joseph.

“Hehe, hold on. I can’t move now.”

“Do I have to carry you there?” Daring Do condescendingly jokes around once more.

Joseph smirks as he gives a straight solution to their problem. “Nah. Here, I’ll teach you something else about Hamon.”

Daring Do simply smiles and nods as she makes her way to Joseph. The light is still bright all around and our adventurers still have hours to spare before high noon.

They’ve got the upper hand as they’ll reach their destination within the day and the sun still shines brightly, but will they get there before the rest of the Pillar Men? What scheme does Kars have in mind to get to the Red Stone of Aja first? Will Daring Do and Joseph be able to fend off Wammu and Kars from taking over the world? Find out next time on Daring Do’s Bizarre Adventure.

*To be continued*

Author's Note

Hello fellow Jojo fans, as you can tell this entire chapter and a few further ones are entirely Jojo references. I know this diverts from the feel and vibe of previous chapters but I thought this would be a pretty nice addition of spice and adventure in the tales of our Anon in this fic. I figured it’d be prettt great if we added a little more action just to the side and give our Anon a little change of pace from his day to day life. I know it’s a little complicated for Anon here but it sure is fun, and that’s an exception for him. I’m not sure if this chapter took longer than usual to post but my official school work comes in about 2 days so we’ll see how my schedule goes. For the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as I’m sure some of you have been excitedly waiting for it. As I said it’s a bit different from the usual but I’d like to know what you thought about it. As you can tell too, you definitely already know what the next chapter’s about. There might be just part 2 or 3 but we’ll see, it was originally supposed to be a one shot chapter but the adventure really is bizarre so it turned out to be longer than I expected, so I decided to post it in segments to build up some hype too, so I suppose the longer story is a good thing. For now, have a good day and I really hope you enjoyed the read. Also props to Araki for making one of the best anime of all time (Jojo/JJBA) and let’s enjoy Part 5: Golden Wind.

Daring Do’s Bizarre Adventure (Part 2)

“You can use Hamon to heal?!”

“Yeah, probably should’ve told you that earlier.”

Joseph is kneeled down next to Daring to level with her as he heals both their injuries that they got from just fighting and beating Esidisi. Daring’s are pretty mild compared to Joseph but it’s always best to drive with a full tank of gas when going on a road trip.

With everything set and scars healed, Joseph gets up as Daring asks him, “I know I said earlier that we should go already, but maybe we shouldn’t go straight for the Red Stone of Aja.”

“What do you mean?” Joseph curiously asks at Daring’s hunch.

“Well, you said it yourself that the Pillar Men are strategic and I’ve seen it firsthand too from our little fight earlier. I’m guessing that maybe they spied on our location last night and camped somewhere along the trail that we were supposed to take to get there so they can ambush us during the day.”

It’s a little far fetched, but her hunch isn’t entirely outside the scope of what’s likely to happen. The Pillar Men knew that the sun would catch up to them soon and that Joseph and Daring Do would get there first once broad daylight strikes the horizon. Surely they’d made a plan to assure they’d either get there first or beat Joseph and Daring, and they knew they weren’t getting there first.

“That sounds like the likeliest of stories, Daring. I’m sure they’d made a plan too, and camping along the path we’d take to ambush us does make sense. Even if Kars can’t fight then Wammu still can, and maybe he’d cover up the light again. We can’t take on two of them, not to mention that they might have lackeys too.” Joseph contemplates Daring’s worry as she lightly blushes at the nickname that Joseph is calling her. He’d already called her that before, but the rush of the battle had her overlook it and now she feels flustered from her first time having someone call her a nickname without her consent. It feels like a pet name to her like what lovers would do but she shakes it off and stays determined.

“What do you think we should do, Daring? You’re the better adventurer of the jungles between both of us.”

“Huh? Oh, umm… I think we should take a little detour. It’ll take a bit more time, but we can avoid the potential ambush and we still have a lot of time to spare anyway.”

“A detour huh? Here.” Joseph groggily summons up a map with their location, the Red Stone of Aja, and the path they were supposed to take had they intended to go straight using Hermit Purple on a bunch of twigs and sticks on the ground. They’d get some rest and sleep seeing that they have the time to, but it’s not a risk they can afford. Their sleepy and tired disposition even evident in their eyes will slowly disappear eventually anyway from their determination and the heart-racing journey and events they’ll encounter walking to their destination.

“Let’s see… there’s a small town over here, not a big one with a lot of people but it’s pretty far from our original path and I’m sure we can get enough supplies there if we have the time.” Daring Do explains as she points a hoof somewhere near the surrounding area of their original path. Since they’re taking a detour then might as well make good use of it.

“Alright, we’re set!” Joseph shouts in excitement right after drawing a new curved path they’re taking towards the artifact.

“Best we get moving now.” Daring Do suggests as Joseph silently agrees by moving his feet. It’ll be quite a journey, but it’s a safe one that’ll get them there just in time.

It’s been hours and hours of walking since the day started and Joseph and Daring have reached the city near the Red Stone of Aja. They admittedly encountered multiple wild beasts along the way, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle with their skill sets. With a bit of time left to spare before the sun sets, they decided to stop by quickly to restock their supplies in case they run into the Pillar Men later for a showdown.

The first step taken and it’s already giving off eerie vibes. The loud dreadful silence that shouts in the seemingly empty town is pretty nerve wracking to them, but maybe everyone’s just inside? It’s definitely a small town and the sun will set soon after all. The only thing big about the town is the large mansion in the middle. With little choice left, they start striding towards the grand mansion.

Each step they take fills them with doubtful dread as they instinctively peer into the windows of each establishment. Nothing, no signs of life or even sound. They take it with a grain of salt as they finally open the two gigantic doors that tower over them. Looks like from the outside and in, the mansion has a pretty Western Neoclassical design. It looks like something straight out of Castlevania where you’d fight a boss.

Skeptically, they take a look inside before fully entering. The place is nearly pitch black, it’s lit up merely by the reflections of light that bounce off some of the floor of the area. “Excuse me, is anyone there?” Joseph shouts his question to which he is answered only by his own echoes.

The next thing they instantly notice was the smell of copper, which erratically sent red flags to them to leave as they bolted for the door.

Alas, to no avail as an invisible ripple figure in the air kicks them both inside launching them far in the mansion. Coming inside, Wammu closes the doors and removes the air that he’d been circulating around him.

“Damn it, how’d you know we’d be here?” Joseph frustratingly asks in regret as Daring broods just the same.

“Fool, we knew you’d figure out that we’d ambush you on your original path, so we took the next most sensible path which was this town and hid here until you came, and you fell for it Joseph!” a voice from behind them condescendingly brags. It’s Kars.

Daring Do slightly notices through the darkness that he’s got a couple of bleeding scars by his arms. He probably got those from running through the forest while some branches scarred him on his way. She can tell that he really ran because of the light burns he has on his body. That explains the smell of blood, and though she’s thankful that the blood didn’t come from where she thought it came from a realization strikes her, “T-The townspeople! Where are they?!” Daring Do manages to stutter as she waits in terror for their answer.

“They ran away the minute we came here, they weren’t in our way so it’s not like we were gonna harm them anyway.” Wammu neutrally answers Daring Do and Joseph which makes them sigh in relief.

“Someone else isn’t here… I take it clearly that you being here means Esidisi is dead.” Wammu suggests with a small hint of concern in his voice.

“Yeah, he burned to dust in the sunlight.” Joseph bluntly tell them.

“I see.” Wammu confirms as he kneels down with a hand by his chest as a respectful gesture to his departed friend, Esidisi.

Kars simply keeps his apathetic expression as he breaks the silence by saying, “His efforts won’t be in vain.”

Wammu stands up from that and puts up a combat stance as he starts inching closer towards Joseph and Daring.

“Looks like there’s no leaving from this.” Joseph states as he and Daring returningly put on a combat stance as well.

Wammu launches himself towards them as he swiftly manages to land a hit on Joseph’s torso. Despite his Hermit Purple Hamon armor, he took a strong punch since Wammu intelligently launched an air attack on him which pierced through his armor by making its way through each purple vine.

Joseph gets flung all the way to the crooked wall of the mansion. Wammu quickly connects to a second attack disregarding Daring Do. His concentrated right jab that’s strong enough to shatter the wall is stopped by a Hamon-infused rope just before it hits Joseph. Instinctively, Wammu goes for Daring Do who’s still biting on the rope hard only to similarly be pulled back by Joseph’s Hamon-infused Hermit Purple. Wammu’s at a crossroads now with both of his arms bleeding. In a furious pull, he launches both Joseph and Daring Do towards the late entrance.

They’re a bit dazed as they try to get up. They notice that Wammu’s wounds are already gone, or rather they were cauterized. “Tch, pretty smart to turn strong wind pressure into heat to seal your wounds.” Joseph appraisinggly says.

“I learned from our previous bouts.” He explains as he slowly makes his way towards the slightly disabled duo.

In a second, Joseph does s quick heal on both their wounds as they stand up and put on another fighting stance. The healing isn’t perfect, but it’s enough.

Suddenly the door behind them open up as the light comes flooding in. Wammu hastily does a back dash to avoid the light that almost touched him.

“Listen Daring, I still have one last trick up my sleeve and I’m only gonna say this once. It’s the Joestar family secret technique.” Joseph explains right after noticing their newfound exit.

“And what’s that?” Daring quickly inquired from sheer curiosity.

“Nigerundayo*, Daring!!!”
(Translation: Nigerundayo! = Run away!)*

Daring Do confused by his foreign statement doesn’t understand what he’d said but follows suit anyway by running away just as Joseph is. In a heartbeat, Daring and Joseph make a mad dash for the open door and quickly bask in the setting sun. It looks like they’ve got a few minutes left to fight before sunset, though the light is still concentrated enough to hurt the Pillar Men.

Expectedly, Wammu bursts out of the mansion in his air armor and smashes the ground he lands on with his fist. It nearly hits Joseph and Daring but they manage to dodge it. “There’s no use Joseph and mysterious traveller, just give up. You two can’t beat me alone and it’ll be night time in a few minutes.”

As Wammu factually condescends, a bunch of shiny projectiles come out of nowhere and heavily cut him down.

“N-Nani?!!!*” Wammu and Joseph simultaneously scream in confusion.
(Translation: Nani! = What?!)*

“Looks like I wasn’t too late after all.” a young voice calls out coolly. As the three turn towards its source, they all see a blonde man wearing green as he strikes a fabulous pose. His build looks a tad smaller than Joseph’s but he’s definitely a lot younger.

“Caesar!” Joseph gladly calls out as he bolts towards his old comrade.

“Who?” Daring Do questions as she’s left with no answer since Joseph is blind with joy.

“Whoa now Joseph, just because I’m back from the dead doesn’t mean you have to be all clingy.”

“W-What? I wasn’t being clingy! You egotistic bubble boy?!”

“What was that?!” Caesar furiously asks his rhetorical question. They’re roughhousing now like kids would as they seemingly forget that their lives are in imminent danger. Daring Do on the other hand just disappointingly stares at them like a mother who’s tired of their children fighting all the time.

Their frivolous little scene, however, is interrupted by Wammu rising from a cloud of dust. “Tch, at least the fight’s gotten fair.” Wammu resentingly shoots at them.

Joseph and company simply put on unique poses of their own as the fight is about to start. Wammu throws sharp forces of wind towards Caesar as he returns a counterattack of hardened bubble discs. Not only were they hard enough to pierce the sharp air but also made their way to Wammu, though his initial attack was just a diversion as he dodges Caesar’s attack counters with a physical one once he got close enough.

Daring Do lunges herself in front of Caesar and shields both of them with a mound of ground parrying Wammu’s attack. Caesar comes in for a switch attack and and launches a flurry of bubble discs.

He dodges them as Joseph comes into close quarters combat with him. Caesar joins in as the two of them aesthetically land blows on Wammu. It’s a perfect combination of damage and swiftness as Wammu can’t even land a hit on either of them from the sheer constant speed and directional variety of the hits.

The cards turn into Wammu’s favor as he manages to get them into the right position, “Divine Sandstorm!”

Caesar and Joseph are exactly by his hands and the damage would’ve been fatal on them had Daring Do not beat him down with a concentrated buck on the leg. “Aaaaagh!”

Before any of them can connect another hit to Wammu, he manages to throw a rock at Caesar’s leg. He’s not disabled by it but he’s definitely limp from the bleeding.

Just like that, Wammu is gone before they can even notice. The trio keep their guard up the whole time looking in all directions as Caesar focuses on healing his leg.

“What’s that sound?” Daring Do inquires from the sound of creaking rubble from afar.

They look towards the general direction of the source of the sound and see that a giant cross made of stone is about to fall from the roof of the mansion. It looks like it’s gonna fall directly on Caesar and there’s not enough time for them to move him nor can he move fast enough by himself.

“No! Not again!” Joseph cries out.

The cross is already falling as Joseph uses his Hermit Purple around a gargoyle from the higher floors of the mansion as a pulley to cushion at least some of the momentum of the giant cross.

Daring Do on the other hand flies at max speed towards the rock in the hopes of breaking it into pieces with enough concentrated damage of Hamon.

Caesar prepares a last resort of using all of his Hamon to break the rock.

It finally lands on Joseph’s Hamon Hermit Purple as the concentrated blow from Daring Do and Caesar come into contact.

The rock explodes into several pieces of varying sizes as Daring Do and Caesar are barely harmed from it. Though when the stone cross landed on Joseph’s Hermit Purple, the sheer momentum from it quickly pulleys Joseph upwards. He gets slammed into a wall and falls down from a fairly high height, damaging him considerably. He’s down for now but he can get up soon enough.

Wammu comes back into the scene as he makes a swift attack for the vulnerable Caesar to finish the job. Before he can get close enough, Daring Do precisely Hamon bucks a midair rock that flew in the air from the explosion of the stone cross. Luckily, it lands on one of Wammu’s air ventilators.

His reflectory defense against the sun is now down. He’s burning up now in agony and he doesn’t have enough strength to crawl to some shade from the raw damage he was dealt.

Despite that, the sun was setting and has now set. He’s safe now but the sun did some considerable damage to him. He can barely even move now, moreover, his eyes are burnt just enough to blind him. The same goes for Joseph and Caesar.

“Looks like this is where my journey ends, but I’m not done yet.” Wammu disgruntedly spoke.

He suddenly starts absorbing so much air from the atmosphere that it’s visible to the human eye. His body starts flaming up from the high air pressure as he blows all the wind outwards like a laser. It hits a stray tree and instantly cuts it down like a razor.

Blindly aiming everywhere, Wammu slowly flails around his attack in the hopes of landing a hit. He attack in straight slashes to increase his hit chance and his current general direction will most definitely slice up Joseph and Caesar.

With a few staggered shuffles, Daring manages to avoid his attack and get close enough to buck him upwards by the bottom of his chin.

Wammu’s skin as already brittle and whithering from the intense heat of his attack and Daring’s powerful Hamon buck was strong enough to rip his neck off his shoulders. It flies around in the air as his body goes still and lifeless, though it appears he’s still conscious.

In heaving breaths, Daring stares at Wammu only for her immersion to be broken by the sound of Joseph’s voice, “Daring! The night time has begun, Kars must already be on his way to the Red Stone of Aja!”

“C’mon, let’s go!” Daring shouts back from the realization of how behind they were in the race.

“No! Go without us, we’ll just slow you down. We’ll catch up as soon as we can.” Caesar returns as he and Joseph start healing their wounds until they can start to move with their feet.

Daring doesn’t say anything as she just confirming my starts flying towards their destination until she’s stopped by the sound of Wammu’s weak voice, “Wait, adventurous stranger.”

She stops in her tracks and cautiously approaches him. “You’ve done well to beat me… I’ll be gone in a bit so I leave with you a parting gift for your efforts. I shall move the winds to your favor for you to get to your destination faster. As a fellow fighter, you’ve earned my respect. Forgive me… my masters.”

Nothing more is said by Wammu as Daring determinedly accepts his words and starts flying towards he Red Stone of Aja with the winds guiding her and aiding her speed to go even faster than she usually would.

As she is out of sight, the silence between the three are broken by stifles of laughter. “Man Wammu, quite the monologue really. Pretty short and sweet compared to earlier.”

“Shut your yaps, I did pretty good.” Wammu returns to Joseph and Caesar.

“Very true, though I wonder how she’ll fare on her own.” Caesar answers.

“She’ll do fine, I’m sure. Though… who says she has to be alone?” Joseph answers back as the three of them start to gather to brainstorm and execute their next move in this fabricated adventure.

In a little while, the bowls of the wind simmer down and Daring assumes the worst for Wammu. She takes a little remorse at the thought until she’s interrupted by the sight of the temple. Her heart is beating fast from her flying and it only got faster at the sight of Kars running towards the entrance.

She makes a dash for it and lands right by the entrance. For an ancient temple, it surprisingly has no traps and the like, though the mere outside alone does have an eerie feel that drives people away.

She arrives by the middle of the temple only to find an empty podium. “Looks like I’ve won this race, not that there was any doubt in the first place.” Kars mockingly says as he appears from the shadows behind Daring Do.

“Darn, you’re not gonna get away with this you bastard!” Daring shouts as she takes the form of a pouncing stance.

“Don’t even try it, you won’t get within a meter of me before you’re dead.”

“Tch.” Daring regrettingly clicks.

“Now, I wonder what’ll happen if I combine the Red Stone of Aja with this mask, wear it, and stand in front of this concentrated flame that’s burning brightly.”

Daring has no choices left as she’s about to make her final stand that may cost her her life. Kars hands are moving to combine the two items he’s holding until they instantly disappear. “N-Nani?!”

https://youtu.be/NFjE5A4UAJI

“Yare yare daze*… looks like I got here just in time.”
(Translation: Yare yare daze = good grief)*

A tall man around the height of Joseph appears quite literally out of nowhere. He’s wearing all white and he looks really annoyed. It looks like he’s holding both the stone mask and the Red Stone of Aja.

“I suppose I’ll have to take those from you.” Kars calmly says.

“Hmmm? You want these?” the stranger neutrally asks as he throws the items in his hands far behind him, “Come get them.”

Kars looks infuriated now but he still keeps his calm demeanor. He starts walking towards the towering stranger until he disappears and is suddenly behind Kars almost as if he teleported, “Nothing personnel kid, but I can’t let you have those.”

Quickly from instinct and fear, Kars attacks behind him, “ORA!” but fails halfway through when something almost faster than the human eye strikes his face. Kars barely saw what it was but he’s sent flying now as he slams into a wall. To Daring Do, all she saw was that for a split second there was something that appeared out of nowhere and quickly hooked Kars by his cheek right before disappearing again.

“You there!” the stranger menacingly points towards Daring Do.

“Y-Yes?!” Daring shouts back like a scared little filly.

“You’re not screaming, I like that. Anyway, we got him now, so say something. Something cool. Let him have it!”

“Y-You didn’t scare me at all, you idiot!” Daring manages to squeal out.

“Cool enough I suppose, but it’s time to finish this.”

“I’m not done yet!” Kars angrily retorts as he gets up.

Suddenly time stops for everyone except Kars and the stranger, “Hmmm? What’s this, Anon? You stopped time for both of us, is something wrong?” Kars worriedly asks.

“I… I don’t know, I don’t feel mad enough to put enthusiasm to my punches.”

“I think I can fix that.” Kars smugly says with a grin on his face as he whispers something to his ear.

Time has begun again and the stranger is enraged beyond belief as his veins start popping out.

He clasps his fists even harder as he says, “That’s where you’ve made your mistake, you pissed me off… ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!” the stranger shouts as Daring sees the quick entity from earlier appear once again and starts throwing a barrage of punches left and right heavily damaging Kars.

*A thousand ORAs later*

Kars is laying on the floor lifeless from the lethal damage he’d sustained, it looks like the journey is over.

“What a drag, but at least it’s over.” the stranger lightly vents in relief.

“U-Um, excuse me?” Daring manages to speak.

“Hmmm? Oh, it’s you. You need something?”

“A-Ah no actually, but, may I ask for your name?”

“Well, it’s Jotaro. Jotaro Kujo.”

Daring scrunches up from how foreign the name sounds but brushed it off as something she’ll have to get used to. “Mine’s Daring Do, thanks for saving me back there.”

“Don’t worry about it, I had to beat him anyway.”

Coincidingly, Caesar and Joseph appear in the room. “Daring!” Joseph shouts in fear and is relieved after seeing Kars dead and her being fine.

“J-Jotaro?! You’re here too?!” Joseph shockingly expresses.

“Jiji*, perfect timing. I think it’s time we go back, our job here is done. Oh, who’s this?” Jotaro curiously asks.
(Translation: Jiji = gramps/grandpa)*

“Long story, but your gramps and I go way back.” Caesar answers in his behalf.

“Wait, you’re leaving already?” Daring gloomily asks.

“Hmmm, well I suppose we can take a picture first before leaving but I don’t have a camera.” Joseph suggests to no avail.

“I do.” Jotaro says as he hands Joseph the polaroid.

They set up the camera quickly and the picture is taken. Jotaro takes it and just stares at it for a while reminiscently, “I… I think you should keep this.” he empathetically hands Daring the picture.

“W-Wow, thank you. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this. I’ve never had an adventure so bizarre before.”

“Well, that’s time. Sorry we have to leave so early.” Caesar bids.

“No, that’s fine. I’m glad it happened. I’m happy I learned about Hamon, stands, and everything else I learned from you, Joseph. Also where’s the other guy with Jotaro earlier?”

“Other guy?” Joseph confusingly inquires.

“Wait, you saw my Star Platinum? How’s that possible, you’re not a stand user are you?”

“Does that mean you saw my Hermit Purple too? I’m sure you knew what it does but I didn’t know you could see it!”

“What are stands?” Caesar just bewilderedly asks with his below-layman knowledge of the topic.

“I did, I saw them both. Though I don’t have a stand.”

“Then that means it’s either an anomaly or your stand just hasn’t manifested yet.” Jotaro cleverly deduces.

“Hmmm…” Joseph ponders in thought as he smashes the polaroid with his hand to use Hermit Purple.

“You’ll have to pay me for that, gramps.” Jotaro neutrally states.

“Hahaha, I know I know. I just wanted to see if she’ll get a stand or not.”

“Well what do you see?” Daring asks in excitement.

Joseph just smirks then smiles, “Well, you’ll see for yourself eventually.”

Daring pouts at that statement as she watches them slowly start to move. “W-Wait, will… will I ever get to see you three again?”

“Only time will tell as fate’s already written. We may see each other soon or we may never see each other again, but if you wish to see us again then keep hoping. For now, we’ve gotta take our last train home.” Jotaro wisely answers Daring as he knelt down to her level and ruffled her mane a bit with his hand.

Goodbyes are sent both ways as Daring just stares at the picture they’d left her. She holds it near her heart and smiles at the sight of the three men as they shrink into the distance.

Morning has come and you are Anon once more. You decided to visit the adventurous writer to see how she’s doing. You’d knock but you see her in the zone in writing her latest novel so you just let yourself in. She doesn’t look too good with those large bags under her eyes.

She finishes writing and glugs down a full mug of coffee right after, “Finally, my new book is done!” she tiredly says in segmented whispers.

“Whoa now, you should probably get some rest now.”

“H-Huh? Anon? What are you doing in here?”

“I just came to stop by again and I’m glad I did. You should get some breakfast first before sleeping.”

“Th-That sounds lovely.”

You bring out the cake from her freezer, it looks untouched and you’d only remembered it’s contents just now. You open it up in front of her as she smacks her lips and then turns confused from the design on the cake. It’s a blue and pink thing that resembles the build of Star Platinum and beside her is Daring Do showcasing the blue and pink stranger. There’s a caption on the bottom that says “Now that’s a crazy diamond!”. She doesn’t really get it and is just giving confused glares at you as you laugh it off. She’s too hungry to really care right now and just digs in on the slice you gave her.

“So what’s the book called?” you ask curiously.

“I don’t even know yet. I had this wild adventure for two days after you left and I met these guys that were humans like you. We crossed hours and hours of traveling and we fought these “Pillar Men”. It was pretty nice.” Daring answers as she takes another look at the picture Jotaro gave her.

“Sounds like a pretty bizarre adventure if you ask me.” you subtly suggest.

“That’s it! Daring Do’s Bizarre Adventure! Thanks Anon. That makes for a really great title.” Daring thanks Anon as she sets down her cake for now and types out the newfound title she’d gotten.

You take hold of the transcript she’d written and now you’d acquired what you came for.

“Mind if I keep this?” you hopefully ask her as you present the transcript in your hands.

“I’m not gonna ask what for but I would if I had more copies of it, I guess you’ll just have to wait for the official release.

That’s not a problem, you need to leave her a copy so you just physically duplicate the transcript. Now there are two copies of the transcript in your hands. You leave one where it was and keep the other. Daring takes notice of your action and just stares at you with wide eyes as she’s chewing on her cake, “H-How’d you do that?! Do you have a stand too?!!!”

“I guess?”

“Wh-Wh-What’s y-your ability? Is it to duplicate things???”

“More like bending reality.” you decide to roll with it.

Daring asks an assortment of questions in burst but before she can become coherent and cohesive enough to be understandable, she passes out from exhaustion.

With a sigh, you carry her to her bed and tuck her in warmly. With a pet of her mane, you leave her room and look at the transcript you’d just picked up and smile at it.

Being the nice guy, you put her dish in the sink, bring back the cake in the freezer, and clean the rest of her house. Everything is spick and span and organized now, not a mess in sight.

You quietly exit her house and see Ahuizotl from a distance. He gives you the questioning thumbs up sign. You return it with an “ok” sign and a blissful wink. He winks as well as you smile at him and salute him off.

In a few minutes you get back to your diner. The day’s just started so Rainbow Dash is still there eating, perfect timing you suppose. “Some coffee please.” you politely request.

“Right away sir.” the other you confirms as your coworkers and Rainbow Dash put on confused faces.

“A-Anon? What?” Sunshine Muffins asks perturbed.

“Oh, I’ve been gone for a few days. That’s not really me.”

“W-W-What?! Then… that means…” Sunshine flusteredly trails off.

“What was that?” you curiously ask.

“N-Nothing, Anon.”

“Well why were you gone for so long?” Rainbow cuts in.

“Here’s why.” you non verbally explain as you hand her the transcript.

She reads it for a second as her eyes go wide and then she disappears into a poof as she leaves a rainbow trail leading to the outside. She must’ve dashed off to read it already.

She comes back for a second right after leaving, “ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou!!!” she gratefully thanks as she tightly hugs you by your neck only to disappear once again.

“That was quite a scene. What’d you give her?” Octavia comes into the scene.

“Something she likes… very much. Anyway, anything I miss while I was gone?” you ask the still flustered Sunshine, you definitely missed something with her though.

“Oh, you got a letter. We noticed it this morning on the floor by the entrance.” Vinyl explains as she hands the letter to you with her magic.

“What’s this?” you ask no one in particular as you read through it.

“What’s it say, Anon?” Sunshine musters up her usual demeanor and manages to ask.

“It looks like I’m invited to come to the Crystal Empire.”

“What?!” all three of them shout in unison from excitement, shock, and the like.

Author's Note

The long awaited chapter is finally done. I know this took me a while and I’m sorry for that. I’ve barely had time to myself because of school. Anyhoo, that’s enough personal problems from me, I hope you all had a good read. Perhaps Daring Do will have even more bizarre adventures soon? Only time will tell. For the meantime, next chapter will be a visit to the Crystal Empire. The chapter right after the next one is a feels chapter that I’ve been thinking for a long while now and I hope you all will like it. I’ve got ideas lined up with little time to spare so with a little patience they’ll come out. Also thanks for all the support, I didn’t think this fic would grow up to be this big. I know it’s not much but it’s already a lot for me. I’ll keep making more soon. Have a good day, fellas.

A trip for four (Part 1)

It’s been a while since you’d boarded the train to the Crystal Empire and you’ve just been staring out the window of your carriage as you take in the sights. You’d seen most of them before already from your flight across the nation when you’d first gotten here but there’s just an immersive feeling about seeing it up close.

Thankfully, you can share this trip with your coworkers and newly found good friends as the letter you’d received said that you could bring friends along.

To your front is the techno-mare Vinyl Scratch and beside her is Chrysalis as Sunshine Muffins.

Vinyl, as usual, is experimenting on her tunes with her headphones as she mixes some sick beats together. Without a care in the world, she keeps doing her own thing as she’s immersed herself within her own dimension of existence. You decide to leave her be to have fun for now as she refused your suggestion earlier to get some rest.

Chrysalis, on the other hand, is simply taking in all the breathtaking sights as you are. You realize that she’s probably never been on a train before and moreover even see this much of Equestria in such a short time. You’re glad she’s having a good time already.

Clearly, beside you is a drowsy Octavia. Despite being an Earth pony, she doesn’t exactly have much stamina so she rests when she can. She’s been giving adorable breaths and snores since right after the train departed from Ponyville and now a bump from the train shakes your carriage a bit and leaves Octavia leaning on you. You don’t mind as her touch is comfortingly warm but a certain pony in front of you is glaring daggers at you.

Chrysalis gives a disapproving pouty stare at the spectacle of you and Octavia. Vinyl notices Chrysalis’ jealousy and she gives it a little laugh as she pats her on the back. Vinyl really doesn’t mind people being around her mare but it’s pretty nice knowing that Chrysalis doesn’t like mares being around you.

You give it a little laugh as well and decide to push her buttons even further by running your hand through Octavia’s mane. She shifts a little and gives out an evident blush as she coos from the comfort of your hand.

Chrysalis is fuming now and she subtly gets even more furious when Octavia unconsciously lays her head down on your lap using your thighs as pillows.

Before she can burst from rage, an announcement calls from the train, “Last stop at the Crystal Empire! Everypony off! This is the last stop!”

The loud notice immediately wakes up Octavia, who now has a fairly frizzled mane, as she perks up bamboozled and slowly pieces together the events that unfolded during her sleep from what she sees.

She blinks a little in confusion until it all registers in her mind, “O-Oh! Was I sleeping on you, Anonymous? A thousand pardons, please forgive me. I didn’t know what I was doing. I should’ve-“ Octavia rambles with a hard blush until you shush her with a finger.

“Hey, it’s alright. You’re tired and you fell asleep. Just lean on me the next time you need something soft to rest on. I don’t really mind.”

She gives a little smile of relief at you as she covers her face, though some “pony” in front of you still isn’t taking your kindness too fondly as she gives you a little pout.

“That goes for you too.” you quip back at Chrysalis as all her jealous rage turns into flustered embarrassment.

You all laugh at her little display for quite a bit until you decide it’s time to move on, “Alright, we better move. We’ve got places to be.”

The duo’s laughter simmers down as does Chrysalis’ embarrassment when they all nod in agreement.

Making your way out, you throw a brush at Vinyl. She catches it with her magic and gives you a confused look until she once more looks at Octavia’s frizzy mane.

In just a bit, the four of you are outside the train and are standing at the station platform with your luggage in tow. You take in a deep breath as your mind is filled with nostalgia of the events of yesterday.

*The previous day*

You’d just finished reading the letter sent by Princess Cadance and Shining Armor as you let all that information process inside your mind.

“It said I can bring friends along. I don’t wanna go alone so any of you care to come with?”

“I-I wanna go!” Chrysalis instantly responds without hesitation. She’s got sparkles in her eyes and she’s smiling widely from sheer excitement.

“Sure, but what about the diner?” Vinyl asks in place of her and Octavia as Chrysalis’ bright mood dims down from realizing that she’ll have to share the trip with them and not just you.

“Other me can take care of it. All is well.”

“He’s right.” Other you says in confirmation as he pops his head out of the kitchen door and immediately hides back in.

“Well alright then, when do we leave?” Octavia comes in with another question.

“Does tomorrow sound fine?” you ask so you can make a proper schedule beforehand.

“Me and Octavia don’t have much to pack anyway so I guess tomorrow is okay. Right, Tavi?”

Octavia gives an enthusiastic and approving nod as she asks a question towards Chrysalis this time, “What about you, Sunshine?”

“Any time is fine by me.” she answers.

“Alright then, we gotta be early so let’s meet up here an hour before the store opens.” you say with finality and determination.

That time has passed and now and you snap back to your reality. You look and see that Vinyl is brushing Octavia’s mane as she is blushing in ecstacy.

You feel a hoof pat your thigh and you look over to see Chrysalis staring up at you, “Anon, I’m hungry.”

You look at your watch and it’s about 8 AM already. “I suppose we can grab a quick snack, but I told you we should’ve packed some of my exquisite cooking instead of buying food from the Crystal Empire.”

“Oh, c’mon Anon. I doubt we’ll be back here anytime soon so let’s make the most that we can out of the food here. Beside, we already know your cooking is the bomb!” Vinyl reasons with much enthusiasm.

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere… but fair enough.” you answer delighted with the compliment Vinyl gave.

“Oooh, I performed here before and I know this great little food stand near the station. They might still be selling, let’s go check it out. It’s on me this time, I’ll order my favorite if you don’t mind.” Octavia suggests with a glint of nostalgia in her eyes.

You can tell she’d like to taste the food from that stand again so you oblige not minding that she’ll order what she likes best, “Sounds like a plan, but I’m paying for all of us. I’m the only one who’s worked long enough to get by.”

“No no no, I insist Anon. You’ve done much for us, this is the least I can do for you.”

“Well alright then, lead the way.” you give up as to not keep the argument from continuing any longer than it should, mostly because Chrysalis appears to be starving already from the “rumbly tummy” sounds she’s making.

It doesn’t take long for the four of you to find the little food stand as it’s within the range of sight from the station express entrance. It looks like it’s a cart of desserts. Makes sense, you guess, considering the Crystal Empire is a pretty classy place. Octavia immediately runs for the stand after seeing it as the three of you try to catch up with her.

Squealing in delight from anticipation her favorite, Octavia orders with a bright smile, “Four slices of Mango Graham Pie, please!”

“Sure thing lady. Say, aren’t you that famous Cello performer? Octavia, was it?” the beige male unicorn manning the stand excitedly asks.

“Why yes, indeed I am.”

“Really!? That’s amazing. My filly’s been doing music too ever since she got her cutie mark recently. She was actually inspired by you and she’s been wondering when you’ll come back again to perform.”

“Oh, well. Not a lot of opportunity arising here nowadays.” Octavia glumly answers with a little joy from the little filly’s fondness of her.

“Tell you what, your order’s free. On the house. I can’t thank you enough for making such inspirational music.” the stallion praises Octavia as he magically hands her her order.

“W-Why thank you.” is all Octavia can say from the sheer and unforeseen flattery she received.

She quickly hands out the other three slices of pie to the rest of you.

“Are these your friends?” the stallion eagerly asks with a smile, thankfully he doesn’t look too shocked about you. Word must’ve gotten out this far already.

You decide to slide into the conversation, “We sure are. This is Vinyl Scratch and Sunshine Muffins. I’m-“

“Anonymous, right?”

You’re taken aback by his remark. You didn’t know you were that well known already. “How’d you know?” you ask curiously.

“You hear a lot of things as a street vendor.”

“Fair enough, you got a name buddy?”

“Puff. Puff Pastry.”

“Well alright then, Puff. Let’s see how good your pastry is.”

The four of you take a bite. It’s pretty good. Their eyes are lighting up now from the heavenly taste of the pie. Chrysalis instantly gobbles down the rest of it.

“Hey, this tastes really great!” Vinyl compliments.

Octavia is just immersing herself in the taste of the Mango Graham Pie that she doesn’t get to eat often as she savors every bite.

“It’s… pretty good.” you speak your mind. Not really in a mocking way, but you call a lot of things pretty good unless they’re really really good. Though you have to admit that the pie really does taste great, better than regular pies but still not better than Pinkie’s pies.

“Pretty good!? Anon, this is marvelous.” Vinyl retorts in disbelief.

“Yeah, but that’s because you haven’t tried these yet.” an unknown voice calls out fairly loudly.

All of you look towards the source and see another cart full of desserts a few meters away manned by a little light green filly with a black mane who is showcasing her products.

“You’re a wee bit too young to be working aren’t you, little filly?” Octavia chuckles a bit.

“I sure am, but it’s never too early to start, I need me some bits! How about you try these?” she enthusiastically offers.

“Sorry, but these pies already fit the bill.” Vinyl replies as Puff Pastry gleams with humble pride.

“Hold on now, let the filly finish.” you interject, seeing that Chrysalis is still hungry.

“Why here, have a free taste.” the little filly offers a fairly large treat. It looks like fruits like strawberries and blueberries topped with a lot of whipped cream and wrapped around a waffle.

You motion for Chrysalis to come accept it. She’s surprised by your gesture then meekly accepts it right away, “What is it?”

“It’s called a ‘parfait’” the little filly explains as she hands it to Chrysalis.

Eager for more food, she takes a modest bite.

With her eyes lighting up, she begs, “Anon! Anon! Anon!” as she tackles you down to the ground and lays both of her front hooves on your shoulders.

“Yeah?” you calmly ask. It’s no wonder that she’s very fond of sweets, she’s never really had some until she met you.

“We have to buy some more! P… P-Please?”

It’s piqued the interest of Vinyl and Octavia now. “Is it really that good?” Octavia asks with genuine curiosity.

You hand her the parfait from Chrysalis and she takes her turn to bite into it and so does Vinyl.

Their pupils turn into little hearts as they storm to the little filly’s food stand and starts gushing about the sweet treat.

“How much for one?! This is the best dessert I’ve ever tasted!!! Did you make these?! What’s in it?!” a flurry of questions are asked by both mares as the little filly blushes in flattery.

You simply brush them aside as you order from the little filly, “5 orders of parfait, please.”

“5? How kind of you, Anon. Getting one for Puff Pastry too.” Vinyl commends you.

“Actually, I was getting 2 for Sunshine here since she’s so hungry. But that’s not a bad idea. 7 orders of parfait please.” you explain as Chrysalis gives you a light blush from embarrassment.

“Seven?! Don’t tell me you’re getting three for her now.” Octavia questions.

Chrysalis is blushing wildly now as she gives you a light shove on the thigh with her hoof in a failed attempt to hide her embarrassment by subtly blaming you.

“Of course not, we have to regulate our sugar intake. This one’s for this little filly right here. She’s done a pretty good job.”

“A pretty good job? Anon, don’t tell me…” Octavia speaks as she goes behind the food stand to take a better look at the little filly. Once she’s there, she sees that she has a cutie mark… a cutie mark of three question marks. “Anon…” she trails off.

“Yup, I come in many shapes and sizes...” you explain.

“Even a little filly.” and so the mare continues.

They all simply just deadpan at you. You wave it off as you introduce your other self, “Everyone, I’d like you to meet Anonpone.”

“Hey there, just think of me as a whole new pone on my own. You’ll be seeing a lot more of me soon.” Anonpone introduces herself with a beaming smile.

They all look pretty skeptically at her from your little skit of showing off your culinary skill, but she gives them huge puppy eyes which makes her look utterly adorable.

“Awwwww.” the rest of your group day in unison as they huddle around Anonpone while treating her like the adorable little filly she is.

“Aren’t you just the sweetest thing?” Vinyl rhetorically asks as they continue their onslaught of touching. She truly is undeniably adorable to nearly anyone so head pats, cupping her cheeks, nuzzling, all actions of affection are laid on her.

“Aaargh, bad idea. Bad idea!” she futilely calls out as the flurry of affection doesn’t stop.

Octavia momentarily breaks her immersion with the little filly to speak with you, “Next time, Anon, just give us your snacks. No need for a grand little skit.”

“Note taken, but let’s get back to business. I’m talking about you.” you digress as you point back to Puff Pastry who seems to have averted his attention from the rest of you.

“Me?” he asks pointing to himself.

“That’s right, let’s go.”

“Yo, what are you talking about Anon?” Vinyl interjects as the small huddle disperses leaving the little filly gasping for air.

“I’m saying we got a lot of time on our hands until noon so we might as well do whatever, and I think that stallion’s little filly would be delighted to see you Octavia. We’ve got a plan but I suppose that can wait until later.”

“But Anon, you haven’t even asked him if it’s alright.” Chrysalis asks with concern. It looks like the manners you’ve been teaching her are starting to take into effect.

“N-No, no it’s alright. I’d like that actually. I was gonna ask that earlier myself but you all seemed pretty busy so I decided against. I’m sure my little filly would love that though… I’m sure she would.” Puff Pastry immediately answers.

They all look a bit uneasy but then all agree in unison with your spontaneous idea. Octavia in particular decided that she’s actually curious to meet the little filly.

And so your newfound quest continues.

Your gang of 4 have been walking to Puff Pastry’s house with a parfait in tow for each of you, with an exception of two for Chrysalis. Anonpone decided to come along with nothing better to do, though she’s kept her guard up for unexpected cuddle assaults.

You’ve been walking for a little while now and you notice a huge statue of Spike situated by the Crystal Empire castle. You remember that you’ll have to visit that place later to meet Cadence and Shining Armor, but that’s later and not now. Though you have to admit you’re pretty impressed by that Spike statue, it must have quite the tale behind it. Speaking of behind, there’s someone, or rather many ones, behind you.

A particular crowd has been stalking your group and growing ever larger as you walk further and further.

You test a little hypothesis of yours as you stop your tracks. So did they. It appears they’re here for you.

Your group stops as well and looks behind them as they’ve noticed you’ve stopped walking. They give you a curious little look after seeing the large group behind you.

“Go on without me… I’ll find you.”

Anonpone puts a hoof on Octavia’s withers and gives a despairing nod. Without choice, they nod as well and go on.

You wait until they’re in the distance until you turn to the crowd and whisper to yourself, “It’s showtime.”

Oh boy was that encounter pretty exhausting. They were the usual crowd asking multiple questions until you decided to silence them with a magic show when Trixie randomly came into mind. They were all baffled by your new tricks and you’re pretty thankful for the last one. You did the “pull a rabbit out of the hat” trick but instead you pulled out Spike. He seemed confused too and then hasty when he realized he was suddenly in the Crystal Empire. He ran as fast as he could with the crowd chasing him and leaving you alone. Quite the Hail Mary Spike was. You’ll be sure to automatically return him to Ponyville in a few minutes.

You make your way to the house of Puff Pastry which you detected with a quick little scan. It’s a pretty regular house with a garden, small playground, the works.

You give the wooden door a light tap. In just a bit, the door swings open revealing Puff Pastry. “Oh, hi there Anonymous. I hope they didn’t inconvenience you too much.”

“Not at all, just glad to be here.”

He gestures for you to come inside and so you do. You immediately hear the sounds of an instrument playing, it’s Octavia you figure.

With a few steps in, you come into what you can only guess is the living room. Clearly Vinyl and Chrysalis are making themselves comfy as they lay lazily on a couch satisfying themselves with pastries and tea.

You can only guess that Anonpone and Octavia are with Puff Pastry’s little filly.

Vinyl gives you a little enthusiastic wave with her hoof as you enter the room as Chrysalis simply offers you a croissant.

“No thank you.” you politely decline.

Puff Pastry comes back from closing the door as he strides beside you, “Oh, please make yourself at home.” he offers with a gesture towards his fairly large couch.

“That’s quite alright, though I’d sure like to know where your foal is.”

He doesn’t question your request and quickly answers you, “Just go upstairs and take the door to the right.”

“Thanks.” is all you say as you make your way upstairs right after he gives you a nod of affirmation. He takes a seat by the couch and simply speaks once more with the rest of your gang. They’re talking about music, you figure he’s a musician. You’re a bit worried about Chrysalis’ position but you’re sure she’ll be fine.

Each step you take upstairs makes the sound of the instrument grow ever louder. You take a step in the room as the door creaks. The music stops at your presence as you see a little filly pegasus with a rundown Cello, Anonpone, and Octavia just stare at you. It looks like the little filly was playing her instrument for Octavia.

“Ah! A monster!” the little filly screams as she cowers behind Octavia.

Octavia and Anonpone simply give it a little chuckle and luckily you decide against actually turning into an abomination that levels with the monsters of the “Resident Evil” series for your enjoyment. It’ll probably scar them for life and even you don’t know how long they’d be mad at you for it.

Though you do play the act in your regular form anyway, “Rawr.” you lightly say without a scream almost as if you’re apathetically reading from a script.

It’s super effective as she seems to grab some of her bed sheets for extra cover behind Octavia. This makes you chuckle a bit in turn as you stride closer to her, “Don’t worry, I’m not a monster.”

Though she flinches in every step you take, she manages to loosen up a bit and stutteringly ask, “Th-Then what a-are you?”

“I’m… a figment of your imagination.” you slyly lie as Octavia and Anonpone give you a questioning glare. You return it with a wink as they hesitantly go on board with your impromptu plan.

“What do you mean?” she curiously asks.

“This is all but a dream, little one.” you rhapsodize with great emphasis.

“S-So Octavia isn’t really here?”

“Yes, she is!” you shout enthusiastically.

She still seems to think it’s a dream and for some reason is pretty happy nevertheless that Octavia is there even if she thinks it’s not really her. She must like Octavia a lot, so much that even a dream does wonders to her mood.

“Yay!” she shouts leveling with your enthusiasm as she gives Octavia’s flank a warm hug.

Octavia can only blush at the sight as it makes her heart flutter. She gives you a thankful nod of approval.

The cheesy sight also makes Anonpone’s heart skip a beat but in the context of you fooling the little foal she can only manage to say, “Bruh…”

You humorously say, “Bruh…” in return as you both chuckle. You simmer down and kneel to level with the little foal.

“What’s your name?” you ask curiously.

She breaks from her immersion to answer you, “It’s Note Crescendo. My daddy keeps calling me eigth Note cuz he says I’m still small but I’m a big mare!” she pridefully mentions as you all smile at her attempt to display her independence by standing as tall as she can.

“Pretty cool name, kid.”

She beams at your complete as you continue, “Here, I got something for you.”

You clasp your hand and take it closer to the little filly. She puts her hoof on it to lightly pry it open as it reveals that your hand is empty.

“But there’s nothing here.” she evidently says shooting curious looks.

“I know, kid. I know…” you say as you lightly ruffle her mane. Though as you pull back your hand, a fairly large and adorable “Celestia” plushie appears within your grasp. It’s about the size of a teenage filly and it really is a tug on the heartstrings. You’ll be sure to eventually get one for Celestia herself and maybe even Luna. You sure can’t wait for that day to come.

Her eyes light up into a joyful blaze as she notices the doll come into existence. It looks like she’s really convinced now that she’s in a dream.

She lets go of Octavia and latches onto the large plushie as she lands on her bed. She starts nuzzling it into oblivion, “It’s soooooo cute!” she screams in bliss.

With a light smile on your faces, you simply await her next move which happens to be a lengthy yawn. She must’ve had quite a day.

She looks pretty drowsy already as you give a little suggestion to your musical friend, “Hey Octavia, why don’t you play her a lullaby?”

“I don’t need a lullaby, *yawn* I’m a grown mare…”

Octavia simply gives her a smile and nods to you in confirmation. She picks up the Cello she brought and quickly starts playing her tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ9RPTEkQW4

Note Crescendo starts to drift off into slumber as Octavia finishes her piece. It looks like Anonpone has done the same.

Octavia comes closer to her as she decides to ruffle her mane and give her one last nuzzle. After packing her Cello, she stops for a second in thought and drops it to the ground.

“Need me to carry that?” you offer.

“No, just leave it.” she answers as she stares at the little filly’s rundown Cello.

“When I was a little filly, someone did the same for me… I think it’s only right that I do the same.” she continues as her eyes slightly glisten.

“How noble.” you simply comment to give her some space.

You retract Anonpone as she disappears, but she’ll be back eventually at a random time.

Octavia subtly notices what you’d done as she stands awaiting you by the door. “I think it’s time we go.” she whispers.

You give her a nod as you both leave the room and take one last peak inside.

Octavia gives her one last sentiment, “Sweet dreams, little filly.”

“Anon, what do?” Chrysalis curiously asks as she nudges your hand with her muzzle.

“Crystal Empire castle.” you bluntly answer. It’s been a little while since you’d left Puff Pastry’s house. He was very grateful and wouldn’t stop thanking you and your friends as you were leaving his house. He even offered you more pastry and despite your efforts to decline, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. You gave him a nod and a thanks as the lot of you finally made your way out of his house.

At the foot of the doorstep, the thrilled scream of a little filly realizing she wasn’t dreaming was heard from upstairs of the residence. You and Puff Pastry exchanged a final smile as you began your next quest.

And here you are now, at the foot of the Crystal Empire castle.

Two gigantic crystal doors block your path to the inside. “Should we knock?” Vinyl asks.

“Too much time.” you reply as you snap your fingers which lands the four of you in a large living room within the castle.

“This is where we’re supposed to be, we’re leaving a little after dinner anyway so just drop your stuff off here. No need for rooms.”

They all do so as they drop their baggage by a considerably big comfy couch.

“What time is it, Anon?” Octavia asks as she lays down softly next to their luggage.

“10:30 AM, we should be having lunch soon. Why don’t you all stay and rest here for now? I’ll go meet our hosts.”

“Sounds good.” Vinyl answers you laying down next to Octavia.

You give them a nod as you stroll out of the room. Suddenly a royal guard spots you. “Halt! Stand your ground!”

You swiftly put your hands up to your head in response as he trots closer to you. Behind your head, you pull out a rose and hold it up to his face. He flinches in surprise and deems you even more suspicious now. You simply lean forward to land your body on him like a reverse trust fall only to burst into confetti and disappear.

Now, a mirror stands in front of him. Confusedly, he inspects it and realizes that he can see you behind his reflection. He turns around swiftly and finds no one behind him. He turns back to see just you in the mirror now.

“I’ve pulled you and only you into this mirror world. Now then, I’ll be off.” you give him a salute and take your leave as he tries to claw his way out of the mirror.

You don’t usually get this much fun, so things are looking up for your activities today, and of course he’ll be released from the mirror in a few minutes.

With a little walk, you hear chatter in the main room of the castle. Peeking inside, you see a baby carriage. Must be Flurry Heart sputtering words by herself.

“Hey there, little fella.” you coo as you grow ever closer.

Upon seeing you, she starts giggling in excitement as she starts reaching out for you. Thankfully, she remembers you.

You hoist her up and land her by your right shoulder. She starts adorably nuzzling your neck. You find that to be very endearing as you lift her up as high as you can with both hands and start running around the room. She seems to enjoy it as she makes happiness noises.

After a little while, you stand by a luxurious couch with one foot raised higher than the other in a heroic kneel kind of way.

“We are but Gods among men, little Flurry. Together, we will rule the world!” you jokingly quip. She seems to reciprocate with you as she giggles in laughter.

“Oh my.” a feminine voice calls out.

You turn to see that Cadence is there, well, was there to see your little spectacle.

“How long have you been there?”

“Long enough. Umm, might you be Anonymous? Twilight told me how you looked like but it’s all still too daunting in the flesh so I’m not sure.” she questions with a hint of worry.

“Indeed I am. My apologies for barging in, I should’ve spoke with you first but I came across this little bundle of joy.” you apologize as you hand her Flurry Heart who’s still reaching out for you.

Cadence takes notice of this. “No worries, she does seem to take a liking to you. Twilight told me about your little babysitting session and I knew I just had to see you. She told me how you.”

“You mean back in Chapter 2? Yeah, that was a fun time.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“...Anyhoo, I extend my gratitude to you.” she thanks with a little bow.

“Lift your head, that’s quite alright.”

She gives you a beaming smile in return as she notices Flurry still attempting her best to reach out to you, “It looks like she’s really grown quite attached to you already. Actually… here.” Cadence returns Flurry Heart to you with her magic as the little Flurry tightly grasps your whole arm.

“Thanks, I guess.” you say as you lightly ruffle Flurry Heart’s mane.

“I brought some friends over, I hope you don’t mind.”

“We don’t, we offered it in the first place after all. Speaking of we, would you like to meet my husband?”

“Shining Armor?” you inquire.

“How’d you know?”

“Twilight always talks too much without even realizing it.”

She gives your joke a little giggle, “Well, I know that for a fact.”

You give a little laugh as well as you decide to make some progress, “Off we go I suppose?”

She nods at your question.

“Well then, lead the way.”

Author's Note

This is way overdue fellas, but school really has been taking a toll on me. Not much to say this time since I'm still busy with work, but I really hope you haven't dropped this yet and that you had a good read. I know I said something great was coming up next Chapter but I accidentally extended this one into two parts. I hope you don't mind but it'll come out eventually. Have a good one, fellas.

A trip for four (Part 2)

You didn’t notice it at first, but now you see that Cadence is pretty tired. She has some light but fairly evident eye bags decorated above her cheeks and she’s been yawning heavily every few steps to your destination.

Flurry is still lightly gnawing at your arm, which still elicits a hearty feeling of warmth inside of you. Being the daughter of the Princess of Love most certainly does fit her just right.

Going back to your current quest, you worriedly ask the grown Alicorn, “Hey Cadence, if it’s alright that I call you that, umm… are you okay? You don’t seem to be doing too well.”

“Yes and yes. Please just refer to me as that, no need for the formalities and royalty. Moreover, I’m- *Y A W N* I’m alright. I just need a bit more sleep, but that can wait. We finished all our royal duties already so we can accommodate you today. There’s time for us to rest later after so don’t… worry about… *adorable snores*” Cadence explained right before falling asleep as she’s still standing.

She perks back up quickly with her eyes wide open from the echoing sounds of clopping hooves in the wide hallway right before you would have woken her up yourself.

She realized she’d just fallen asleep but the pony in the hallway with the two of you speaks up before she does, “A-Anon, there you are! There’s a pony stuck in a mirror! I couldn’t do anything but I’m sure you can so I came to look for you.”

It’s Octavia, and it looks like she found the stallion in the mirror just by herself, “Oh, him? He’ll be out in a few.”

The grin on your face made Octavia easily infer that the stallion’s predicament was of your doing.

With a little pout, she quickly disregards your antics from the worried inquiry of the Princess next to you, “W-What stallion? In what mirror? W-Where?”

“Uhhh, i-it’s nothing Princess Cadence. Everything is quite alright, just the shenanigans of some unknown bipedal creature.” she facetiously explains with a hint of sarcasm as she bows in respect to the royalty in front of her.

“Oh, raise your head please. Any friends of Anon’s is a friend of mine, so just treat me as you would your own friends.”

“Oh believe me, you wouldn’t want to be treated the way she treats her friends.” you snicker to yourself from successfully returning her little sarcastic jab at you just now. Cadence joins in your stifled laughter as your gray friend pouts even harder.

The joyous vibe is interrupted by the sound of loud, rumbling tummies. You pinpoint it to Cadence, who is now blushing lightly, and a giggling Flurry Heart, who’s tummy rumbled so greatly that you could feel the vibrations of her stomach resonating throughout your whole body since she’s still latched onto your arm.

“Lunch?” you ask Cadence after noticing that it’s close enough to noon anyway. You just hope she’s not starving herself just to get her work done.

“Sure.” she bluntly answers dismissing her little faux pas.

“Octavia, can you please call the other two and head into the dining room?”

“Sure, but I don’t know where that is.”

“You will.”

Without thinking too much, she shrugs and decides to put her faith in you seeing as what you’ve been capable of doing since she’d met you.

“I can’t wait to meet your other friends.” Cadence remarks once Octavia has left the scene while Flurry giggles in agreement.

“I’m sure you’ll like them.” you confidently say with a bright smile.

You’ve just arrived at the dining room of the castle only to find Shining Armor snoring as he’s sitting down by the dining table.

Cadence hurriedly trots to him in concern. With a few moderate nudges, he slowly awakens back to consciousness.

“Oh, hey honey. *Y A W N* I just had the most amazing dream.” he’s in pretty much the same shape as his wife, very tired looking.

“Oh sweetie. Have you been here since breakfast?”

“Actually, I think I slept here last night.” He must be doing really badly if a full night’s rest

This looks like bad news. Cadence didn’t know whether Shining Armor was there for breakfast or not which means she herself skipped breakfast. They’re skipping meals, overworking themselves, and maybe even see each other less frequently just to work. And from the documents on the table, it looks like they’re not even done with their jobs yet. Cadence simply lied about getting it all done just to accommodate you and your friends. It’s all usually seen in bad taste to thank someone for what they’ve done after a long time so she probably decided to invite you as soon as possible despite their hardships.

You set up a little plan in your head as Cadence simply nuzzles her husband in comfort. “Sweetie, did you forget? Anon was visiting today.”

“H-Huh? Was that today already? Oh, how could I forget?” Shining Armor slightly self-loathes his mistake with a hoof to his head.

He doesn’t seem to have taken notice of you yet so you take the liberty of striding towards him. “Why hello there, Mr. Armor.” you enthusiastically greet him holding out your hand for a… limb shake.

Flurry flies over to her father from your arm as Shining startledly gasps from your presence, “He’s here already!? How long was I out?”

The nuzzlings of Flurry comforts him enough to extend his hoof and shake your hand, “Anyway, I-I’m Shining Armor, Twilight’s brother. We’ve heard some stories about you from her, you sound like a really nice guy.”

“Why thank you.” is all you manage to say before a Royal Guard enters the room with the friends you tagged along.

“There he is! The assailant!” the stallion announced with a hoof sternly pointing at you.

“Oh, you mean Anon? He’s no assailant.” Cadence reassures the stallion as he flinches in surprise.

“Huh, what!? U-U-Uh, m-my apologies s-sir Anon! I had no idea that it was you who had been here!” the stallion apologizes hopefully with a little bow.

He’s sweating bullets and you don’t blame him for not knowing what you’d looked like, regardless his actions were sensible considering the antics you’d pulled on him.

“That’s fine. Would you care to join us for lunch?” you ask the stallion to ease his tension. You’re pretty sure Cadence and Shining Armor don’t mind, but you’re still hoping they don’t just in case they do. It’s not like there’s any imminent danger anyway, moreover that you’re here then there’s probably nothing that can harm any of you.

But just to be sure, you ask, “I’m sure you two don’t mind, do you?”

“O-Of course not. You can join us for lunch, it’ll be lunch soon anyway.”

“Y-Yes of course, your highness.” the stallion replies as he trudges towards the seat closest to him.

Your little posse passes by you as you smugly remark to Octavia, “I told you you’d find the dining room.”

She simply rolled her eyes at you. Chrysalis in particular looked a bit fidgety with a hint of rage but you dismiss it for now.

Greetings are exchanged as Cadence announces afterwards, “Alright, let me just call on the waiter and we can start eating soon.”

Shining is too tired to do anything so he just lightly nods with his eyes closed as Flurry crawls all over him, a sight that made Vinyl and Octavia dote and adore the little Flurry Heart, but not Chrysalis.

Cadence begins to light up her horn but it shines a dim light that slowly starts to lose its spark so you put a hand by her withers, “Hey, let me take care of it. I can do it. I’ll be quick.”

She gives you a cheerful smile, “Why thank you, Anon.”

Everyone’s taken their seat with you and your group on one side, Cadence and her family on another, and the stallion by the edge of the table shyly waiting for what happens next.

You stand up and walk out of the room right after giving Chrysalis’ mane a light brush of comfort. Right as you’re completely out of sight, a green filly with a chef’s getup trots into the room.

Your posse gives her a skeptical look of familiarity as she gives them a wink.

“Oh my, I’ve never seen you here before.” Cadence asks, lightly baffled and implying the pony simply had a small physique and wasn’t a filly, which confirms your groups suspicions, though they decide to keep quiet and let the cards fall where they may.

“I’m new here, ma’am. Your friend sent me, he said he needed to go to the bathroom.”

“Well alright then. I’ll have some Hayburgers, I’m feeling a little hungry right now. What’ll the rest of you have?” Cadence asks everyone in the room.

Shyly, they just decide to have Hayburgers as well.

“I’ll have them ready right away.”

Cadence gives her a nod and a smile as she starts trotting out of the room.

Once more after Anonpone is out of sight, she instantly comes back into the room with you as she’s holding a large covered plate on her hoof.

You give everyone a little wave as you put the large covered plate on the table for Anonpone.

“Thank you!” she gratefully gestures to you.

You take a seat after lifting the cover which reveals several stacks of pizza. They’re vegetarian of course, except for yours which is cheese.

“This isn’t what we ordered.” Cadence asks with a little confusion.

“Of course not, I made it better.” Anonpone replies with a confident smile.

Cadence gives the little filly the benefit of the doubt as she asks, “Uhhh, okay. Is this a pizza?”

“No ma’am, it is a ‘Peetzer’.”

“A ‘Peetzer’? What’s the difference?”

“Nothing, really. We just call it a ‘Peetzer’. Think of it as a special recipe.”

Cadence looks it over as the delectable smell lingers all over the room. It’s aroma is so appetizing that Shining Armor immediately opens his eyes and quickly floats over his own “Peetzer” to him and starts gorging down the round meal to sate his hunger.

“Well at least that checks out it’s tastiness.” you quip as the whole room gives your remark a light snicker.

Cadence drops her skepticism as she generously floats over a “Peetzer” to everyone using her magic.

“By the way, this pony is technically me. Her name is Anonpone, but just think of her as a whole other pony.” you explain as Anonpone jumps up on your lap and settles on it like a cat would. You remove the obstructing chef’s hat and start ruffling her mane gently.

Cadence is slightly baffled but returns to a regular state upon remembering what Twilight had told her about you. “Another one of your parlor tricks, I presume?” she asks with an amused face.

“You catch on quick. How’s the ‘Peetzer’?” you ask with great anticipation as you take a slice from yours and feed it to Anonpone, who’s eager to take a bite.

“It tastes exquisite, actually. It has an exotic, yet homey taste to it. I love it!”

Ahhh, non-generic criticism. Despite it not exactly being an artisan’s critique, it truly fills your heart with joy.

The rest of the ponies on the table are simply feasting on your cooking as they usually would, quickly yet still savoring it.

“You seem like an enthusiastic bunch! I hope you’ve been having a good time here and I really hope you’ll like the schedule we’ve prepared for us. Right, sweetie?” Cadence positively remarks to the lot of you and then her husband.

“Hmm…? Schedule? Oh no! Right, the schedule!” Shining Armor quickly shifts from his satisfied state to a distressed one.

“You weren’t able to make it?” Cadence asks with more concern than rage.

Shining replies with a worried horizontal shake of his head.

“Oh dear. T-Th-That’s okay we can just go to the park right after. But wait, no, we need to take Flurry to her nursery first…” and on and on she rambles on with her husband to make an impromptu schedule. Her speed and style of speaking reminds you of Twilight when she’s distressed about a ruined, delayed, or even imperfect schedule.

Their thoughts and ideas being thrown keeps piling up as does their stress until they pass out from exhaustion. Gasps can be heard throughout the room as Flurry crawls over to her parents in concern.

You quickly teleport next to them and confirm their current state, “It’s okay everyone, it’s just fatigue.”

Sighs of relief are then heard this time as you pick up Flurry and hand her over to Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. They seem to be distracting her well enough, or rather the other way around.

You quickly teleport the two royal couple into their room and on their bed. You come with them as you personally tuck them into the bed and ruffle their manes for a good day’s rest. You’d even enabled their dreams to be lucid so they’ll have a better time.

“Sweet dreams, you two.” with that final statement, you come back into the dining room to find that nothing much has changed.

You huddle near your posse and ask them a little request of yours, “Hey girls, even I don’t have a schedule but how’s it sound if we spent the day at Flurry’s nursery just until Shining and Cadence wake up?”

Vinyl and Octavia are practically squeeing in delight just from the idea.

“Alright, I think it’s best we go now.”

They all trot eagerly outside the room, except for the somber Chrysalis who’s walking aimlessly with her head to the floor.

You start heading out with then but snap your fingers without looking back. The Royal Guard who’s still at the table is amazed to find even more untampered “Peetzers” on the table.

“You and the boys have a good lunch.” you remark just as you leave.

“Y-Yes sir!” he blissfully replies with a happy smile on his face as he starts galloping out of the room to tell his friends and coworkers the good news.

You’ve been walking towards the nursery with your group and Flurry. Vinyl and Octavia’s constant doting on the baby still haven’t ceased as they’re looking more at Flurry than where they’re going so they’ve fallen behind you and Chrysalis.

“Hey, you alright? You’ve been pretty glum for a while now.” you concernedly ask Chrysalis as you pat her head.

She takes comfort in it but still manages a heavy, tired sigh, “I’m… I’m fine, Anon. Just tired, I suppose.”

You can tell she’s hiding something but the truth will come out eventually. Your further demanding will inevitably lead to bickering which isn’t the good outcome. It’s better for her to tell it to you herself so you drop it for now.

Though to slightly ease her tensions…

“Ahh! A-Anon!” she lightly cries out loud enough for only both of you to hear as you run your hand around her back to give her a soothing massage.

“Well, you did say you were tired.”

She’s too immersed and melted into your adventurous fingers that are hitting just the right spots to resist your kind gesture. She’s simply indulging in it as she audibly moans in delight while you both walk towards the nursery.

In just a bit, Chrysalis’ blissful heaven ends as you reach your destination. She’s a little dejected by it, but her mood has most certainly improved.

You and your group are standing in front of a daunting structure near the castle. It appears to be a school that takes most levels from nursery all the way to college. Nevertheless you enter with your friends and soon find the modest area that holds the nursery.

Octavia and Vinyl excitedly trot inside but stop right at the door after they realize you’ve stopped walking meters ago.

“Oh, is something wrong?” Octavia asked slightly worried.

“I… I got something I need to do. I hope that’s alright but… I’m sure you can have fun without me.”

“Are you sure? But that’s why we came here in the first place, to rest and have fun.” Vinyl continues the conversation.

“And we will, just… later, okay? You girls have fun.”

“Well, just be back soon.” Octavia ends it after she shrugs at Vinyl as she did the same. They continue to dote on Flurry as she futilely attempts to reach out for you once more while she leaves your range of sight.

You notice Chrysalis hasn’t moved or said anything yet but she does look pretty glum again.

You stride up to her and kneel a bit, “Hey, I’ll be back okay? I’m sure you’ll have fun here.”

She just gives you a slightly doubtful look so you reassure her once more, “If you don’t, well… I’ll make it up to you.”

She lightly blushes from your final remark as she firmly turns back away from you, “I-I’ll hold you up to that. D-D-Don’t you forget it!”

You smile from her reply which reminded you of how she usually is, “I will, Chrys. I sure will.”

You decided to bail out on having fun with your friends to return the favor to Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. You’re certain they’ll have fun with or without you so you thought it be best that you lend your generous hosts a helping hand in return. A small sacrifice for a greater purpose.

You teleport into the castle’s main office as you hear the hearty cheers of the Royal Guards. Sounds like they’re having fun over lunch. At least you won’t be questioned about your secrecy if you’re caught.

Checking out all the paperwork, there’s a couple complaints to be fixed. Some big and some small but all to be done by you as fast as you can.

The entire kingdom’s woes have finally been lifted after a while, the ones that were reported at least. Cadence and Shining’s entire workload have been cleared and you’d even made a couple of systems to make some aspects of the kingdom and their work more efficient.

To take a little rest, you decide to go see how Cadence and Shining are before you go back to your friends.

The door silently creaks open as you slip yourself inside. They’re both still asleep, but you’re glad to see that they look less tired.

A devious thought comes to mind. Surely it couldn’t hurt to…

And just like that, you’re inside Cadence’s dream.

Your curiosity has far surpassed all else in the field of your mind. You decide to first enter Cadence’s dream, and her modesty and simplicity truly warms your heart.

It looks like she’s working as a “pizza mare”, and she’s happily doing her job. The dream definitely has some influence from lunch.

You trail her further and she eventually finishes her job. She comes home to her family and she has a heartwarming evening with them as a regular and happy family. You’re delighted to see that she would be more than happy to just live a simple life with her family.

Venturing off into Shining’s mind, he has relatively the same dream as Cadence, except it’s in a wooden house by some wheat fields with his whole family, including Twilight.

How noble they truly are. As you’re observing the two, you feel a presence behind you.

You turn around to find a baffled Luna who’s simply staring at you with wide eyes. Oh no, you’re crossing territory.

You quickly boop her on the nose and disperse from the dream world before she can say anything.

You’re back at the nursery and you enter the room where your friends are at. Expectedly, Octavia and Vinyl are playing around with a few foals but to your surprise, most of them have flocked to Chrysalis.

She doesn’t seem to be annoyed, but rather flattered actually. To your surprise, she’s even indulging in it and laughing a bit. You take a picture from afar before striding closer.

“A-Anon! You’re here!” Chrysalis surprisedly points out.

She looks at herself in the pile of infants before turning with a light blush on her muzzle.

“Good to see you’re having fun.”

Upon the sound of your voice being heard in the room, all the infants crawl to you in wonder. They quickly tower over you and now you’re laying on the ground being overrun by the little foals.

Chrysalis snickers in return but then looks to her flank in awe right after. It looks like Flurry Heart was part of the horde and she stuck with Chrysalis. It’s quite ironic when you think about it.

Octavia and Vinyl flock to you as well in excitement.

“Hey Anon! You’ll never believe who was here!” Vinyl happily tells you as her riddle is answered by an opening door.

A large white Alicorn comes trotting in the room positively with a smile on her face. “Oh my.” she remarks after noticing your presence.

You pull out a decoy of yourself to go talk with the large fluff of cotton. The foals take the bait and you’re now standing in front of Celestia. You’re just a little taller than her by a couple of inches, but she’s most definitely larger than you.

“Hi there Princess Celestia, what brings you here on this lovely day?”

“I should be asking you the same thing, Anonymous. I’ve come to visit one of my favorite schools, especially because my niece’s daughter studies here.” she explains as she lightly nuzzles Flurry Heart, who latched onto your arm once more after seeing you once again.

“Princess Cadence invited me here as thanks for babysitting Flurry a while back. I brought some friends with me so we can have some fun, care to meet them?”

“I already have, and they all seem like a nice bunch! Especially Sunshine Muffins, she’s truly a remarkable mare, really good with foals.” she compliments your friends with a nice smile.

That statement earns her a crimson shade from Chrysalis and a victorious smile from you. It looks like she’s really changing for the better, you really hope so at least.

You’re certainly looking forward to speaking with Celestia, but the faint orange glares of the sun suggest that that conversation must take place in a future time, so you bid your goodbyes for now.

“Celestia, I’d love to have a nice little chat with you, but sadly, I think it’s time we take our leave.” you regretfully tell her, which gets you a somber reaction from your group. Besides, the other foals’ parents should be arriving soon and having another horde of adult ponies crowding over you is more than an inconvenience, not to mention if one of them assume you to be hostile around their child.

Celestia nods in understanding, “Well then, it’s best I don’t keep you waiting. Goodbye everyone, and goodbye to you too my little bundle of sunshine.” she bids the five of you with a final warm nuzzle on Flurry Heart who adorably hugs Celestia’s muzzle in return.

“Good evening, Mr. Anonymous. How was your day today?” a Royal Guard enthusiastically asks with an energetic salute.

“Doing just fine, Mr. Guard Man.” you return equalling his energy.

The rest of your group come inside the castle as the Guard give each of them a kind greeting and a wave. It looks like the guards have warmed up to you, you figure it’s mostly because of the free feast you’d given them but you’re pleased to see they’re treating you like friends already.

It’s a little over 6 PM already as you and your group have returned to the Crystal Empire castle. The rest of the afternoon earlier was simply spent wandering around the place. You all went through a nice walk in the park, went shopping by the plaza, and even played some simple and fun games along the way. Sadly, none of you didn’t bring enough money to buy a new Cello for Octavia, but you’ve got a different plan for that soon.

You all make your way to the living room where you all first entered from and start packing your things. Considering that Cadence and Shining will probably wake up the following day and the length of the train trip to get back, your group decided to simply go back a few hours early.

You’ve all already done a lot of fun and tiring things for the day already anyway, and not to mention that there’s not a lot more activities that the four of you can do on your own.

“Me and Vinyl will be going ahead. You two pack the rest of your things while we wait by the front door.” Octavia informs you as they quickly packed their things. You and Chrysalis have a few more stuff than them, and you need to return Flurry to her room anyway.

You nod in agreement as Octavia and Vinyl give Flurry Heart one last nuzzle.

“See you in five!” Vinyl says without looking back as she leaves your sight.

“Welp, let’s make this quick” you tell Chrysalis.

“Okay, Anon.”

Your stuff are hastily packed and so is Chrysalis’. You leave them both as you start making your way towards Flurry’s room. Chrysalis seemed to follow you but you didn’t mind, though the entire short trip was composed mostly of awkward silence aside from Chrysalis’ slight fidgeting and Flurry’s happy giggles.

As you lay down Flurry in her comfy bed and tuck her in, you give her one last boop on her muzzle before leaving.

As you turn around, you see Chrysalis heavily fidgeting now. Like she has an urge…

Your thoughts piece it all together now. Despite being fairly reformed, her nature still takes priority. You’re certain her body still requires love to function properly. The worst part of it all is, there’s been so much love all around her the whole day, and she must’ve been suppressing her craving for love since you’d arrived. You know she’ll outgrow it in time eventually, but that time is not now.

She’s volatilely hissing already, and she’s turned towards Flurry Heart. Her love must be at astronomical levels right now. You’d rather not think about it, but she just might attack the little foal if she can’t hold it in anymore.

Thinking on your feet, you pull a final Hail Mary that came to your mind in the heat of the moment.

“Wh...What?” Chrysalis says with a blush of hard crimson red.

Holding her deeply in your arms, you pulled her close and gave her a passionate kiss on the cheek. A simple peck wouldn’t do so you stood there kissing her for a little while. You imagine what the two of you look like at the moment. The image running through your head makes you think that the both of you are an intimate couple. You get more and more flustered by the second as your temperature slightly rises and your cheeks redden.

Flurry seems to be cheering at both of you as you let Chrysalis go, “We’ll, ummm… we’ll talk about this later.”

The entire trip to the front door was even more awkward than the trip to Flurry’s room. Chrysalis’ attitude the whole day finally adds up to what didn’t make sense before, but none of that matters right now.

As you regroup with Vinyl and Octavia outside the castle doors, the white mare speaks, “You two sure took a while, something happen?”

You and Chrysalis simply look at opposite ways lightly blushing as you scratch the back of your head in embarrassment.

“Oh ho ho, don’t tell me something like ‘that’ happened?” Octavia pokes around a bit at you and your bug friend.

You both blush even harder as you simply brush it off and start making your way to the train station.

“Oi oi, don’t be like that now.” Octavia casually returns as Vinyl slightly giggles.

You and Chrysalis were teased by Vinyl and Octavia until you got in the train to Ponyville. Thankfully, they dropped it right away just as you all loaded your luggage and took your seats.

Soon enough once the sun has fully set, the four of you have an appetizing dinner. The soft and light shades of the dynamic scenery out the window compliment well with your meal.

Time passes and Octavia eventually fell asleep on a slumbering Vinyl’s withers. The day must’ve been pretty tiring for them, especially considering their time at the nursery.

You turn to see that Chrysalis isn’t sleeping at all, instead she’s staring at Vinyl and Octavia. You wonder if she’s thinking about doing the same with you, but you decide to break up the silence by starting a conversation… about earlier.

“W… Why didn’t you tell me you needed some love?” you ask her after making sure no one is nearby.

“I didn’t want to bother you. I… I even overlooked my past with Cadence and Shining Armor so all of you could have a fun time...” she explains to you with a slight frown forming on her muzzle.

That would explain her somber mood earlier, but nevertheless you’re proud of her for maturing and putting the grudgeful past where it should be… behind her.

You put a thoughtful hand by her withers as you look her in the eye after she turns your way, “Thanks, Chrysy. But next time, just bother me. You may have your own past, but this is the present now, and we’re making a future together.”

“Thank you, Anon… for everything.”

You feel your bond with her growing stronger. Right after, she simply comes closer and snuggles with your chest. You grab her with both hands as she nuzzles your chest and neck while you return the favor by scratching her ear and patting her head.

The both of you get comfier in the same position until you’re just lightly rustling her mane. You start to get drowsy as your vision slowly darken.

“Get some rest, Chrysy.” you barely speak out as she muffledly agrees through your chest right before the both of you drift off to slumber just like your other friends.

Author's Note

Took me a while again, fellas. Sorry about that but now that it's here, I hope you had a good read. As I said, the next chapter is a real tug on the heartstrings. I won't say much about it but all I can say is that it's somber for the most part. Have a good one lads, and once more, I hope you had a good read.

Funerals and weddings

“I wonder what they think of me?”

That’s the question you’ve been asking yourself recently. You’re not quite sure why or when but the thought started to linger around your mind out of nowhere.

Of course, sub-questions started to manifest as well. How do they feel about you? Have their lives become better since you came around? Do they enjoy your company?...Are they...better off without you?

You know you’re probably just overthinking this and they actually like it better with you here but...you can’t help but take it with a little grain of salt.

These questions keep running around your head as you prepare the ingredients for the day right before your diner opens.

The sound of knocking on a glass surface at this time fills you to the brim with curiosity.

“I’ll get it!” you shout out so Chrysalis can continue preparing for opening time.

You open the glass door to see Pinkie right outside wearing a sort of “Cake costume” with the largest round part on the bottom and the smallest round icing part on top like a cute little hat. She’s also got some saddlebags with her.

“You’re a little early. Is something different today or are you just that hungry? And what’s with the getup?” you immediately ask to sate your curiosity.

“Weeeeeell, it’s somepony’s special day today! Can you take a guess who? And I am a little hungry. Hihihi!” she enthusiastically tells you after giving your joke a little snicker.

“Hmmm… is it Applejack?” you answer her right after stroking your chin for a bit and handing her a paper bag of her usual breakfast.

“Huuuuuh!? How did you know!??? You used your powers, didn’t you?” she astonishedly asks and accuses after she gratefully accepts her breakfast and stuffs it in her saddlebags while she hands you the payment for it..

“It’s just a really wild and far fetched hunch, but maybe, just maybe it’s the apple symbols on those letters leaning out of your saddlebags.”

“Ohh! Hehehe, I guess I should’ve kept it more secret for the surprise. Well, here you go.” Pinkie giggles to herself as she hands you with her mouth a decorated letter.

You quickly open it up to give it a little skim, “Down by the farm, huh?”

“Yup, later afternoon at 4 PM so the party ends at sunset! Granny Smith said she wanted to bake for Applejack’s birthday so we decided to have it by their farm! Also, almost everypony from Ponyville will be there so you might as well close up shop later.”

“Alright Pinkie, I’ll try to go early.” you tell her as you ruffle her mane.

She takes pleasure in your affectionate gesture as she bids you goodbye, “Welp, I better give out the rest of these letters so I can help Granny Smith bake those pastries! See you later Anon!”

You wave her off as she disappears in a puff of smoke shaped just like her.

A chuckle escapes from your mouth as you turn back and shout, “Hey girls! We’re closing early today!”

“Hmmm? Why?” Chrysalis asks after she trots near to you.

“Applejack’s birthday, we gotta visit and there won’t be much people eating here anyway since they’ll all be at the party.” you explain.

“Oh, how perfect! Vinyl and I were just about to ask you if we could take an early leave since we’ll be performing there later!” Octavia exuberantly announces as she and Vinyl get down from their small stage.

“I would’ve let you go anyway. Heck, I might’ve even made you go if you weren’t invited to perform.” you quip around, which gains you faint laughter from your musical friends.

“I think I’ll just stay behind, it’s not like I was invited anyway.” Chrysalis gloomily suggests.

“Actually, it looks like you’re invited. See?” you point out as you show her in Pinkie’s letter that she’s actually invited to Applejack’s party.

Chrysalis feels warm and fuzzy inside from being remembered instead of being left out despite not standing out much. She smiles to herself and blushes a little until an obvious question arises in her mind, “Wait, why wasn’t I given my own letter?”

You quickly piece it all together in your head. Did they think that you and Chrysalis are a couple? Eh, not like it matters what they assume. You don’t see her that way and she probably doesn’t see you that way either, despite her perpetual embarrassed state around you. You don’t tell Chrysalis but from the flustered look on her face, it looks like she already figured it out.

An alarm suddenly rings signifying that it’s already 6:00 AM

“Alrighty, places ponies. We got food to cook and melodies to jam until 3:30 PM!”

They all heartily salute as they start making their way to their stations as do you.

You start to lock your doors minutes after 3:30 PM sharp so the four of you are as punctual as can be. The counters were wiped and the tables were organized with all the dishes cleaned already as you stand outside with your three friends.

“Welp, go time ladies.” you initiate as your friends follow suit with you striding towards Sweet Apple Acres.

It doesn’t take long for you all to get there. It looks the place isn’t packed yet, but you can see some familiar faces roaming around. The sweet and crisp smell of delicacies fill the air and your nostrils almost immediately. You even notice Chrysalis’ mouth watering quite a bit with delighted eyes of anticipation.

“Hey Nonny! Why don’t you try some?” Pinkie calls out as she throws you a slice of pie from the smorgasbord of pastries and delectable foods laid out on a large table right outdoors.

You precisely slice it with your hands and hand half of it to Chrysalis as you sample the other. Hey, it tastes pretty good.

“Perfection as always, Pinkie.” you truthfully comment while Chrysalis drowns in a sea of flavor, savoring the piece of pie and gushing over its taste. Come to think of it, this is probably her first time eating Apple pie, especially on this divine caliber of taste.

“Why don’t you go try some more?” you suggest.

“Y-you sure it’s okay?” Chrysalis meekly asks jolting upright from her little display.

You give her a nod as she bolts towards the table, your other two friends giggling at how Chrysalis is acting like a little filly.

Noticing their equipment, you give them a suggestion as well, “Why don’t you two start setting up your stuff? You can roam for quite a while without worrying about setting things up later if you do.”

“Yeah, let’s do just that. Why don’t we, Vinyl? C’mon. Bye Anon, see you later!” Octavia happily bids you goodbye as they both give you a wave with their hooves.

That leaves you to be alone. However, you notice Twilight and Spike right by the middle of the farm with Twilight wielding a clipboard with a checklist on it using her magic.

“Hey you two, busy busy busy huh?” you ask, reaching their range.

“Well it’s mostly just Twilight, but I’m her right hand dragon!” Spike answers you trying to look cool by striking a pose from his last remark. Twilight, on the other hand, is too focused on her task to have even noticed you.

“Well, where’s Applejack? I wanna see her whole family since I’m already here. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her parents. Do they work someplace else? But they should be here right? It’s AJ’s birthday after all.” you cluelessly blurt out.

Your flurry of questions makes Twilight Do a thousand yard stare and drop her clipboard, “Anon, I…”

“Wait, don’t tell me…” you slowly piece things together as the somber realization sets in. What a way to dampen the mood.

Twilight looks down glumly as does Spike.

“Hold on.” you tell them as you notice Applejack coming out of the barn and slowly trotting towards you.

“Howdy Anon, how are ya?” she greets with a tip of her Stetson.

“Howdy yerself birthday girl, havin’ a fun day?”

“Huuuey, like a pig rollin’ in mud I’d say!” AJ returns humored by your imitation of her accent.

You smile for a bit at how things are but slowly start to have a thousand yard stare as though you’re heavily contemplating something important.

“Hey, AJ…”

“Yeah, Anon?” she asks with a tinge of concern in her voice.

“Wait, let me just…” you kneel down on her level and stare right into her emerald eyes.

She starts giving you a look of curiosity as you slowly place your hand on her forehead.

This is it, “Bloodline Recall”!

You scan through the memories of her late ancestors as you finally spot the ones you need.

Pear Butter and Bright Mac huh? Let’s see…

It looks like they had a few bumps along the way until quite a while after they got married. Pretty standard but you’re just thankful and relieved that their marriage was a happy and loving one.

They had three foals and lived a very happy life together, truly quite the perfect fantasy. Of course, perfect is beyond rare and is practically unheard, and so that day came…

They both died…

You skip ahead to find that AJ’s childhood right after had been a complete mess that tore their lives apart. Seeing that death outside natural means was extremely rare in Equestria, their hysteric reactions might’ve even been insufficient in their case. Luckily, at least, they seem happy now...but this still ain’t right.

You pull back from AJ’s forehead as you place your hand on your own, your head hurting quite a bit. It looks like all the depressing memories did quite a number on your mental state, but the pain will subside in a bit and you’ll be fine.

“You okay Anon?!” she loudly asks you worried, catching the attention of most ponies in the farm.

“I’m...I’m fine, but… ah, dear me…”

It looks like you’re gonna have to make a temporary sacrifice. Things will be somber for a bit but...it’ll make for one hell of a birthday gift.

With a snap of your fingers, you summon a knife and stab yourself by the gut.

“Anon!!!” Twilight shouts as she starts rapidly trotting toward you.

Applejack simply looks at you dazed from witnessing what just happened.

“D-don’t worry girls...I’m fine…,” you heavily pant in wheezing breaths, “But I’ll be gone for a bit, don’t worry...I’ll be back…”

“No no no Anon! You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine right?” Twilight continuously mutters as the rest of your friends and their friends have already galloped towards you, staring in dismayed shock.

“I can’t say much since it’ll ruin the surprise but...have her sing at my grave at my funeral in 3 days…”

“Grave? Funeral? No Anon, you gotta stay, you’ll still make it with your powers, c’mon just heal yourself right up.” Chrysalis practically demands at you.

“And who is ‘her’?” Pinkie concernedly follows up as Fluttershy futilely tends to your wound.

You rest your cold hand on Fluttershy’s hoof and slowly give her a nod as you tell everyone, “I can’t say much but you’ll all see. I think it’s time I take my leave…”

They all hurriedly form a glum group hug holding on to you as tight as they can almost as if they’ll lose you if they let you go. Cries and whimpers and pleads are heard from all directions as you’re clumped by ponies all around.

You bid one last goodbye to your favorite mystery, Pinkie Pie, who is almost crying profusely. “Goodbye, my snake eater.” you comfort her with a hug and a ruffle of her mane as you burst into dozens and dozens of emerald butterflies.

The butterflies slowly start to disperse in all directions as the cold realization starts to kick in. You’re gone…

Well, for now at least. Though surely they won’t take it very well even after you said you’ll be back. Uncertainty always brings out the worst of situations.

They start crying and bawling from your unexpected leave. Some still don’t believe it as they keep asking several queries forming their own multiple theories on your disappearance, but deep down they think you’re gone.

However, in the middle of the swarm of butterflies you left them an equivalent exchange that starts to show itself more as the butterflies slowly disperse by the second.

“M-mom?” Applejack asks in disbelief as she quickly wipes her tears for a double take.

It’s Pear Butter, but she’s asleep. She’s still the same age as she was when she died, and every bit as beautiful and lovely.

Applejack starts tearing up again as she runs to embrace her mother. The waterworks start to flood as she touches Pear Butter’s skin which confirms for her that she’s really real.

Hours have passed by and the party got cancelled due to Pear Butter’s appearance. Ponyville glooms today as everypony somberly returns to their own houses with a grim expression.

As for you, you’re happy to know now that they truly love you for who you are. Yet, you are also sad to see them depressed, but you’ll just have to make sure to make it up to them when you come back.

Why did you kill yourself again? Well, that’s simple. Equivalent exchange.

Proportional trading is essential to keep the harmony in check. An imbalance, such as a resurrection, will spawn chaos throughout the land unless a suitable sacrifice is made. In this case, it is you.

Maybe most of it is just for your own peace of mind about karma and harmony and balance, but you’ll be back in three days anyway once the dust has settled and you’ve died enough.

As a specter unseen by those of the physical realm, you spawn yourself in Sweet Apple Acres to check up on the Apple family.

It looks like they let Pear Butter rest by a bed since she hasn’t woken up yet. Next to her is a sleeping Applebloom who’s embracing her mother very warmly. Her eyes are a bit red, perhaps she cried herself to sleep from the sheer joy and nostalgia.

Big Mac is also in the room, patiently watching over his mother and sister awaiting their awakening.

You phase through a few more rooms to find the others, and soon enough you spot Applejack and Granny Smith with unreadable expressions plastered on their faces.

After a little silence, they continue their conversation. “Is...is she still there?” Applejack queries Granny Smith, still dazed in disbelief.

“Yesh Applejack, yer ol’ mama Pear Butter is still there.” Granny Smith casually answers.

“Oh thank Celestia...I really ain’t dreamin’.” she joyfully says as tears start flowing from her eyes.

Sounds of whimpering echo throughout the room as Granny Smith consoles her, “You know Applejack, ah was mighty sad when yer mama and papa, well…you know. I never thought I’d ever get to see em again, I jus’ took it as a fact and eventually ah...ah moved on. My baby boy Bright Mac might not be here, but havin’ even jus’ Pear Butter back is already a blessin’. Ah’m really, really happy that she’s back.”

Right after Granny Smith’s little speech, her blissful waterworks start to turn on as well as memories of the past start flooding her mind.

Applejack slightly winces from remembering the trade off that brought her mother back.

“Ah’m happy too that mom’s back...but, well...I can’t believe Anon’s gone. I can’t believe he sacrificed himself for…”

Her tears and wails were about to worsen until she put up a face of resolve and quickly wiped her tears away with a hoof. “No, A-anon’s fine. He said he’ll be back so he’ll be back.” Applejack firmly states despite actually being uncertain and uneasy.

“Ah sure hope so. He done a good thing for the Apples today.” Granny Smith interjects.

Silence befalls the room once more as they organize their clutter of thoughts and feelings.

Applejack rises from her seat after a little while, “Ah’m gonna go check up on Big Mac, Applebloom and…mom.”

Granny Smith gives her a confirming nod but speaks up right as Applejack is halfway out of the room, “Applejack.”

“Hmm?”

“Happy birthday.”

“Thanks, Granny Smith.”

She leaves the room as she plops down to the ground crying silently. Her firm disposition falters as she breaks down in a mixture of emotions of joy and sorrow.

Looks like you really meant something special to them. With this, you decide to leave them for now and venture off to somepony else. You’ll come back the next day, perhaps Pear Butter will be awake then.

Next stop, Rainbow Dash. Stepping into her humble domain, the sound of muffled wailing fills your ears. Exploring her house further, you expectedly find her huddled in her room toppled and stacked by everything on her bed. She probably tried to conceal her cries so nobody would see her like this.

Well jeez, you’ve only checked up on two of them and you feel pretty bad already. You decide to take a seat by her bed and observe her for a little while. She continues to cry for a little longer until her emotional demeanor starts to subside.

Limply, she crawls out of her sheets a depressed mess. Her mane is tangled all over, her eyes are reddening from her crying, and her fur is all meshed up into different directions. Must be her first time experiencing loss.

Her eyes wander over to a stack of paper on the drawer next to her bed. She slowly reaches for it and gives it a read. It’s the transcript you gave her a little while back, Daring Do’s latest book that you helped her make.

Tears start to stain the cover of the transcript like light rain pitter pattering outdoors. With her eyes closed, her waterworks come back on stronger than before. She starts to wheeze and hyperventilate as she returns to her little pillow fort.

Time to visit the most emotional one you’d expect from this whole situation, Rarity. As you enter Rarara’s boutique, sounds intervaled munching and sobbing fill your ears. Ice cream, right.

After locating the origin of the noise, you spot Rarity posed on a couch eating a tub of ice cream. Jeez, she’s looks even worse than Rainbow Dash. Seems she’s not handling things pretty well. Though by the sight of unfinished human suits next to her, it also looks like she’s coping by continuing to produce those clothes you order on occasion.

But despite her coping mechanism, she still sounds like a banshee.

Wait, no regular being or creature alive can stand noises that loud, so where’s Sweetie Belle?

You pull up a mental radar and find that she’s right outside. Oh, and she’s with someone else?

Phasing through the walls towards the outside, you find her glumly mourning with Scootaloo. It looks like they’re having their own little funeral already, and they probably left Applebloom to have her own kind of mourning because of her mother and all, she’s asleep right now anyway.

You make your way to them and you notice that they’re displaying a food wrapper from your diner.

“To Anon, he was one of the most special creatures I’d ever come to know. We didn’t know each other for very long, but I’ve known him long enough to know that he was a kind person.” Sweetie Belle announces like a funeral speech.

“I didn’t know him for as long as you did, but I’m sure too that he was a great guy. Even if this food wrapper is one of the few things we can remember him by, we will cherish it for as long as we live.”

They stare at the food wrapper for a little while until Sweetie Belle speaks up without breaking eye contact from the wrapper, “Hey, Scootaloo?”

“Yeah?”

“He...He’ll be back, right? We’ve seen what he can do so he’s still hanging around somewhere, so someday he’ll come back here, right?” Sweetie Belle starts, showing trembling signs of her turning on her waterworks.

“...I don’t know. I wish I did, but all we can do for now is wait and hope.”

Sweetie Belle’s tears have started to drop to the ground as she embraces Scootaloo in comfort to which Scootaloo reciprocates in sympathy.

“He’ll be back, he’ll be back…” Sweetie Belle continuously repeats between flooding tears in the hopes that it’ll come true like a wish if she believed hard enough.

All Scootaloo can manage to do is to stroke Sweetie Belle’s mane in response as she lightly cries into her friends neck.

Jeez, what an emotional mess everyone has become. Looking out, it seems to quite literally be everyone as there’s not a single soul roaming the streets of Ponyville.

Maybe it’s just because it’s night time, but you’ve got a feeling that’s not the case. You’ll call it a night already, perhaps things will be better tomorrow?

The crack of dawn arrives and the sun has barely graced the land of Equestria when Pear Butter awakens from her lengthy slumber. You took notice of this quickly and immediately appeared at the scene.

Her tired eyelids have started to shift a little as she covers her eyes from the blinding sunlight that had just encased the room. Exhaustedly, she opens her eyes and is greeted by the sight of her three children, two of which are still resting and one particular Applejack at the brink of collapse from being up all night waiting for her mother’s awakening.

A mixture of emotions decorate Pear Butter’s face as she examines the sight before her, though concurrently, Applejack musters just enough energy to realize her mother is finally awake.

“M-mom! You’re...you’re finally awake...” Applejack says as she remembers that this is all really happening, realizing that her mother is finally back after all these years.

She silently bolts towards Pear Butter and lands softly on her lap breaking down in tears of joy. She’s speechless and simply tearing up, as is Pear Butter. Though from her sheer willpower to stay awake throughout the entire night, Applejack comfortably falls asleep on her mother’s lap.

Pear Butter simply decides to stroke her eldest daughter’s mane as she tries to piece everything together until Granny Smith enters the room.

“G-granny Smith? Is that you? What’s...going on?”

“Oh, P-pear Butter,” Granny Smith says as she trots over to her daughter-in-law to give her a warm embrace, having a similar reaction as Applejack’s, “It’s...it’s a long story. Why don’t I tell ya over breakfast?”

Pear Butter gives her a slight nod, still dazed by everything she’s seeing, as they both silently head downstairs.

After quite a bit of reminiscing, Pear Butter is now up-to-date with everything relevant and major that’s happened while she was gone as Granny Smith told her of everything she could remember over the course of breakfast.

“So...there’s this foreigner from another world with reality-bending powers that raised me from the dead and sacrificed himself in the process?” Pear Butter curiously asks.

“That’s about the long and the short of it, dearie.”

“Why?”

“...We...we don’t really know.”

“Well, I’ll take this as my second chance. B-,” Pear Butter stutters a bit, silently grieving at the thought that her dear husband isn’t here, nevertheless she musters up some resolve and continues, “Bright Mac may not be here, but I’ll do it right this time, I’ll take care of our children.”

They both share a moment of silence and grief until Granny Smith speaks up, “Why don’t ya start now? Ah reckon there’s a few good people in Ponyville that’ll want’a see you after all this time.”

“What about the kids?” Pear Butter asks in concern.

“Don’tchu worry none about ‘em, I’ll whip up some breakfast fer ‘em while yer gone.”

“Thanks, Granny Smith.” Pear Butter thanks in gratitude with a smile as she starts trotting off into the city.

“Don’t take too long now, missy. Ah’m sure the children have a lot to talk about with you. And why don’t ya go visit Twilight Sparkle? Ah’m sure she might have summin’ ta say about all this, especially about you and yer current condition. She’s the purple alicorn by the large crystal castle. Ya can’t miss it.”

“Alright, Granny Smith.” Pear Butter responds like a teenager would to a parent as she rolls her eyes, trying to keep things on a more jolly note.
.

Pear Butter is at the entrance of ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ as she happily takes one look back at the home she hadn’t seen for the longest time. She makes a wide, blissful smile as she turns and starts heading off towards her first destination, the large tree by the edge of ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ where she got married. Though surely, she’ll make sure to visit Twilight later.

After a little trekking, she finally reaches her destination. The mere sight of the tree fills her mind with memories, the good. The bad, and everything in between.

She places a hoof at the bark of the tree and closes her eyes as she looks down, “Anon, was it? You brought me back to life, back to my family and my home. I don’t know if you’re listening or not or even where you are but...I just want you to know that I’m very grateful for what you did. I don’t know why you did it, but I do know that I have a second chance now, a second to do things right and pick up where I left off. I know it’s not much but, thank you…thank you, Anon…”

She holds her position for a little while until a swarm of emerald butterflies start to approach her. They slowly circle around her as some of them rest on her mane. She eyes them gracefully and examines them with joy.

Suddenly, the sound of heaving breaths and light whimpering seems to get louder and louder. Oh, it’s Fluttershy.

You were gonna check up on her later but she’s already here, and you might have a pretty good idea on why she’s here.

Fluttershy slows down to a stop and starts breathing heavily to catch her breath. During her recovery, she takes notice of Pear Butter, who is eyeing her curiously.

“Ummm, hi there. You alright?” Pear Butter asks in concern.

“Oh, h-hello there Mrs. Butter.” Fluttershy timidly responds.

“Oh, please, just Pear Butter will do.”

“Ummm, okay Mrs.Butter- eep!” Fluttershy replies in embarrassment, completely forgetting Pear Butter’s request.

Pear Butter merely stifles a giggle at the timid display of the mare in front of her. “Soooo, what brings you to the edge of ‘Sweet Apple Acres’? And come to think of it, how do you know my name? I figured word of my situation would spread quickly but I got a feeling I should know who you are.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Fluttershy, one of Applejack’s friends.” Fluttershy introduces herself as she extends her hoof for a hoofshake.

“Pear Butter, I’m sure you already know who I am.” Pear Butter responds as she shakes Fluttershy’s hoof.

Fluttershy seems to zone out for a bit with a little sorrowful expression on her face.

Out of concern, Pear Butter carries on the conversation, “Oh, right. What brings you here this early in the morning again?”

Her question seems to have had an opposite effect as to what she’d expected since Fluttershy slowly starts to tear up. “O-oh, it’s just that...it’s just...when you got ressurected, our friend sacrificed himself.”

“S-so I’ve heard…. His name was Anon, right?” Pear Butter starts to have a similar expression as Fluttershy’s.

“Yes,” Fluttershy answers in between sniffles, “he was a kind man…. When you appeared, so did these emerald butterflies, there was a swarm of them.”

Pear Butter stays silent, simply looking at the ethereal sight of emerald butterflies that are still flying around her.

“It was just a hunch, but I thought that maybe they were a clue. Maybe if I followed them long enough, they’d lead me to Anon or something…. I’m sure he’s still out there somewhere...”

Fluttershy starts to turn on her waterworks as Pear Butter embraces her in comfort.

“Well, now they’ve stopped here...with you…. Maybe...maybe he really is gone...”

“I...I’m sorry, Fluttershy...”

Her bawls grow stronger and stronger yet still as silent as can be. “I...I’m sorry, I have to go...” Fluttershy apologizes as she gallops off towards her cottage without even waiting for a response.

Well that was left on a pretty somber note, sadly it seems to have taken a significant effect on Pear Butter’s mood. Hopefully her old friends will turn that around.

Pear Butter aimlessly trots around the streets of Ponyville, her mind filled with the thoughts of what it took for her to have been brought back to the world. All eyes are on her as they stare in disbelief of her resurrection. After a while, one of the ponies finally trot up to her, breaking her somber trance.

“P-Pear Butter, it...it really is you.” an adult mare with a gray mane says as she tightly hugs Pear Butter as if there’s no tomorrow.

“Mayor Mare? Is that you?”

Both begin to elate with joy with Mayor Mare starting to tear up joyfully.

“It’s been too long.”

“Long enough for your mane to turn gray.” Pear Butter quips.

“It’s actually just gray dye.” Mayor Mare whispers while she wipes her tears away with a hoof as they both start giggling.

“So, how have things been without me?”

“Well, I’m now the Mayor of Ponyville!” Mayor Mare excitedly announces in a sing-songy tone.

“Wow! That’s great news! But how’s that love life? Still single hmmm?” Pear Butter snickers which gets her a pout from Mayor Mare.

“Oh bugger off. I’ll settle eventually.”

“Well you better find one soon before your hair turns gray naturally.” Pear Butter laughs once more.

Kek.jpg

“Well, I’ve still got political business to do. I suppose your next stop is over there.” Mayor Mare points towards ‘Sugarcube Corner’.

“Great, thanks Mayor Mare.” Pear Butter waves her goodbye and starts trotting off until she’s stopped by the call of her friend.

“Pear Butter!”

“Hmmm?” Pear Butter replies as she looks back.

“I’ll...I’ll see you soon, okay? We’ve got a lot to catch up on.”

“Of course, we’ve got a lot of time to make up for lost time.” Pear Butter responds as they both smile and wave each other off.

Pear Butter quickly manages to reach ‘Sugarcube Corner’, unaware of why Mayor Mare suggested her next destination is here but having a slight hopeful idea of who she might meet.

“Hello?” Pear Butter curiously enters the bakery. The scent of freshly baked goods enters her nostrils as she takes pleasure whiffing the immaculate smell.

“Good morning, welcome to Sugarcube Cor-” Mrs. Cake greets but cuts herself off after seeing who her customer is, “Pear Butter? You...you’re finally back!”

As expected, Mrs. Cake rushes over to Pear Butter and gives her a very hearty embrace.

“Chiffon? Wow, you’ve really grown.”

“Well you haven’t changed one bit since the last time I saw you, hehehe. Oh, and it’s ‘Mrs. Cake’ now.”

Pear Butter’s eyes start sparkling in astonishment, “You mean you finally got married! To Carrot Cake too?!”

“And I have two lovely bundles of sunshine.” Mrs. Cake excitedly tells Pear Butter turns to look at Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake who just aimlessly crawled into the room giggling.

“Awwww, they’re adorable.”

The Cake twins begin to instinctively crawl towards Pear Butter, who’s giving a very maternal and loving aura.

A flattered Pear Butter picks them up and starts nuzzling them in response. “Reminds me of when Applejack and Big Mac were still little foals. Well, they’re not so little now hehehe.” Pear Butter puts on a slightly long face.

Mrs. Cake puts a hoof by Pear Butter’s withers and tells her inspirationally, “Hey, it’s okay. They’ve changed much over time but you’re still the lovely Pear Butter I knew way back when. A lot of time has passed but, well, I’m sure they’ll still love you very much. Just wait, you’ll see.”

“Thanks, Chiffon.” Pear Butter, in slight tears of joy, gives her good friend a hug.

What a sweet sight, but you should probably leave them to their own business. Besides, you got a feeling there’s someone you should really be seeing right now.

Floating through ‘Sugarcube Corner’, you reach into the kitchen where the baked goods are being made. The sight of Pinkie immediately enters your field of vision. Despite the reddening area under her eyes, she looks pretty normal. She’s working pretty diligently too, rolling the batter and mixing the ingredients.

She seems fine, humming a hopeful and catchy tune even. But something is definitely up. Looks like it’s time to use some of your powers, you can’t really affect the world right now but you can still use your powers that won’t tamper with the physical realm.

“HPATIPE!!!”

You suddenly get a recorded footage of the events that transpired a few minutes ago.

You see Pinkie in the kitchen, she’s still working diligently but something is off with her expression. She’s still a little depressed.

Quite expectedly, Mrs. Cake enters the scene and quickly takes notice of Pinkie’s mood.

“Hey sweetie, still a little under the weather about Anon?” Mrs. Cake concernedly asks.

“Mmmhmm...” Pinkie bluntly answers.

“Well you’re certainly looking better than last night, that’s a plus.” Mrs. Cake lightly jokes to diffuse the situation but to no avail as Pinkie doesn’t respond. Regardless, Mrs. Cake still approaches her.

Right after Mrs. Cake reaches within Pinkie’s reach, Pinkie wraps Mrs. Cake in an embrace to comfort herself. “I miss him already...” her tears welling up slightly in her eyes, she buries her face into Mrs. Cake’s chest.

“There there, sweetie.” Mrs. Cake starts stroking Pinkie’s mane.

After a bit, Pinkie retracts from Mrs. Cake and wipes her eyes with a hoof, “N-no, I...I should smile. Even when things aren’t looking so good, I should always find the best in things. That’s what Anon would tell me.”

Mrs. Cake takes notice of Pinkie’s optimistic turn and decides to further press on that, “That’s right, he brought back Pear Butter before he left. To be honest, I…I didn’t think I’d ever see her again. But thanks to him, things are made right again not just for me but moreover for the Apple family.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Still, I don’t know why but I feel like he’s still somewhere out there.”

“Well, we’ve got nothing to work on but faith. It’s not much, but I think it’s worth hoping in.”

“Thanks Mrs. Cake. It still feels depressing but he said he’ll be back and, well…that’s good enough for me.”

Things are looking up as Mrs. Cake and Pinkie hug in positivity with smiles.

As if by cue, the entrance bell signifying an entering customer rings.

“Oooh, I wonder who that is. I better go get it. And Pinkie, feel free to take the day off if you’d like.”

“Okey dokey lokey Mrs. Cake, but I think I’ll stay just here. Baking always made me feel better anyway.”

“Suit yourself.” Mrs. Cake leaves the kitchen with a shrug and that’s where things are now.

From the portion you’ve seen of how much you’ve affected everyone, your heart is already warmed to see how much they care about you despite being relatively new, not to mention that you’re pretty much an alien to them.

Things truly are better here than on Earth, you can say that with ten billion percent certainty. On a higher note, you’ll really have to make it up to them sometime in the future.

Looking back into the present, you notice Pinkie loading up her cake into the oven. After setting it in, her eyes grow a little watery as she silently cries. “Why’d you have to leave? There’s so much we still haven’t done together, you, me, and everypony else...but...I’m sure you have your reasons. I still believe you’ll be back soon, so please...come back as soon as you can.”

“I will, Pinkie...I will.” you say despite knowing no one can hear you.

Even though you can’t affect them, you come near her anyway and start stroking her mane, perhaps to comfort yourself more than Pinkie.

You leave the kitchen and notice Pear Butter with a couple bags of pastries on her back. She didn’t have any bits with her so it’s most probably on the house. You didn’t catch what they said but you could tell they’re bidding their goodbyes already.

“Off to Twily then.” you think to yourself as you follow Pear Butter out of ‘Sugarcube Corner’.

Pear Butter stares in awe at Twilight’s castle. “Don’t remember this being her before.” she tells herself.

She timidly enters the crystal castle and shouts, “Excuse me, is anypony here?”

No response, of course.

She enters and trots on for a bit hoping to find Twilight until she happens to reach the library.

You could hear Twilight muttering inside. You take a peek and see her flying all around looking at multiple different books. She doesn’t look like she slept at all.

Pear Butter notices her wings and horn and supposes that she’s the new Princess Twilight.

Right before she could call out to her, Starlight Glimmer comes into the scene which slightly startles Pear Butter..

“Excuse me, Mrs. Pear Butter, right? Nice to meet you, I’m Starlight Glimmer, Twilight’s apprentice.” Starlight politely greets.

“Starlight, right? Good to see you too.” Pear Butter returns as they both shake hoofs.

“Listen, umm...I’m sorry but if you’re here for Twilight then I’m not sure this is the best time. She’s been like that...since last night.” Starlight glumly announces.

“It’s because of your friend, Anon, right?” Pear Butter asks in concern.

“Yeah, we even had to suspend our school today since there wasn’t enough staff present.”

“He must’ve been a really great guy.”

“He was…” Starlight says as she stares off into the distance.

“Well, I guess there’s not much for me to do here. I better go back to my family then.”

“Alright, I’ll go see if I can talk some sense into Twilight. Have a good day, Mrs. Pear Butter.” Starlight bids with a wave of a hoof.

“You too.” Pear Butter follows suit.

You decide to stay for a bit to see how Twilight’s doing. Following Starlight towards Twilight, you can see her disheveled state in greater detail.

“Twilight, I think it’s time you stop. You haven’t even eaten dinner from last night.” Starlight requests.

“Not yet, Starlight. There must be some way to find out what happened to Anon. I’m sure it has to be in one of these books. Or maybe I should look into the Canterlot archives, or the Castle of the Two Sisters.”

“Twilight…”

“Just a little further, Starlight. I haven’t found anything yet but if I keep looking I’ll surely find something that’ll lead us to Anon.”

“Twilight…”

“M-m-maybe if I go find Starswirl, he’d be able to help. Maybe he’s just in suspended animation. Maybe if I just cross reference enough books then maybe, maybe...m-maybe…” Twilight starts stuttering as Starlight focuses Twilight’s gaze on her.

“Twilight…” Starlight says once more as Twilight slowly breaks down into tears. Comfortingly, Starlight hugs Twilight and lets her let it all out onto her wither.

Welp, you suppose you’ll let them take care of things. Time to visit a few of your own friends.

You head back to your diner and see that it’s pretty empty. Of course, it’s completely closed. Not a sign of life in sight, but you’re certain there’s one upstairs.

You head into the diner and make your way into your room to see Chrysalis in pretty much the same state as Rainbow Dash. Though she’s sleeping, probably cried herself to sleep from what you can tell. Oh, but it looks like she’s

“I’ll be back soon, love bug. Just a little longer...” you tell her despite knowing she can’t hear you.

Time to hit up your last stop, Octavia and Vinyl.

You enter their home after a little while of walking. The place is silent as a grave except for the melodies of a sorrowful piano and cello.

“He always did want us to learn this song...” you hear Octavia mutter sorrowfully.

“It was one of his favorites too...” Vinyl continues.

“I...I wish he could’ve heard us play this...” Octavia starts as her tears start to well up.

Vinyl gets off her piano and starts caressing Octavia despite her starting to cry as well.

The music stops and is replaced by their silent cries. They curl up into each other in an attempt to comfort each other and soon both fall asleep in each other’s embrace. No words could’ve suppressed how they felt.

Welp, you gotta get ready for the big day tomorrow. The day of your funeral.

You’ve got a surprise for everyone and you only hope that you can make it up to them someday.

The time comes, your grave is ready and everyone in Ponyville is crowded at your funeral. Well, everyone except Chrysalis, you sense that she’s still in your room. Even Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Shining Armor are here, guess the news spread pretty fast. You noticed that they just buried your iconic suit in a coffin considering they can’t exactly find your body. It also seems that everyone’s wearing black. Well, tradition is tradition.

Mayor Mare takes the stage and starts up a speech, “In the past few months, we’ve all come to know Anon very well, not only as Ponyville’s best cook, but moreover a good friend. He’s done many thing for a lot of us here, and he’d often even go above and beyond the impossible to make miracles for us. Despite being unique to his own species here in Equestria, he didn’t let our differences barrier him from making friends. He didn’t shelter from society and embraced his uniqueness to make memorable experiences for us all. From his food all the way to his culture, he’s shared a lot with us, and he’s made a lot of things with us too. He was a great man, and a better friend. His final gift to us all was bringing back Pear Butter. No one still knows why he did it, but we do know that he’s made the Apple family a little more complete. As per one of his final requests, Pear Butter will sing to his grave.”

That was one hell of a speech, it even made you feel warm inside as some of the ponies started crying. That can only mean that her speech resonated well with them and what they perceive to be true.

Mayor Mare steps down as they lead Pear Butter towards your grave. She carries a guitar with her as everyone watches them get ready.

“I didn’t get to know you Anon, but from the great things you’ve done, this is the least I can do.”

The crowd is already silent as she starts strumming on her guitar. Soon after the melodic tune sounds, she starts to sing the song that holds dearly in her heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsTRTMvpsk

Dead silence comes right after her angelic song. However, it’s your time to shine. It’s time to try and cheat the laws of death. The living mustn’t bring back the dead unless they make a sacrifice, but there are no laws about the dead bringing back the dead.

Your arm claws out of the ground like a zombie and struggles to pull yourself into the surface. The crowd of ponies all gasp in shock and terror as you slowly emerge from the surface.

With your left hand still buried underground, you wipe yourself off of the dirt on your suit with your right hand as you casually say, “Kept you waiting, huh?”

A sonic zoom of blue suddenly rams into your stomach, though you don’t flinch from your position. You do kneel from the sheer pain you felt though.

“Where the hell were you!? I...I missed you...so much...” Rainbow berates you through tears as the rest of your friends and several other ponies smother you in hugs and affection through tears of joy and relief.

“I...I was busy.” you explain as you manage through the pain.

“I was so worried, I wasn’t sure if you’d ever be back.” Fluttershy tells you.

“Darling, it was unbearable losing a good friend. Please, don’t do that again.” Rarara says in relief as her mascara starts to run.

Several others say similar messages until Pinkie cups your cheeks and forces you to look her way as she sternly tells you, “Anon. don’t ever do that again.”

You know she had faith in you but you’ll never know what’ll happen in the future, “No promises.”

She gives you a little pout as you ruffle her mane. She takes affection in it as Applejack interjects, “Thanks, Anon...you’ve given me the greatest birthday gift ah could ever get. Where were you anyway?”

“What do you mean? I was getting you your birthday present.” you explain.

“Huh?” she seems shocked at your revelation.

You break yourself off from the huddle as you make a bit of space. Your left hand finally raises from the ground to reveal that you were grasping onto a pale hoof.

You raise your left hand all the way to reveal a stallion, Bright Mac.

“B-Bright Mac!” Pear Butter shouts in a daze as she runs towards him.

“Pear Butter? What’s going on?” Bright Mac responds as Pear Butter starts nuzzling him affectionately.

“It’s...a long story dear.” she explains.

“Dad?” Applejack manages to muster as she approaches him.

“Applejack? Is that you? You look older. Wait, darling, did we…?” Bright Mac starts to realize as Pear Butter gives him an affirmative nod.

No more words are said as the entire Apple family huddles up in an endearing family hug.

“My sweet boy, you’re back...you’re finally back...” Granny Smith says in tears of joy.

Jeez, the scene’s heart warming but a little too sappy for you. You turn and face Twilight, “So why’s everypony wearing black? Didn’t I tell you all to wear white at my funeral?”

“Uhhh, no, you didn’t,” Twilight explains in slight confusion as she continues, “why would we wear white at a funeral?”

“Because my gift isn’t done yet. Well, not a problem Twily.” you tell her as you make your way to the podium.

“Excuse me, everyone. I’d like to invite you all to the rewedding of our handsome groom, Bright Mac, and our lovely bride, Pear Butter.” you announce and with the snap of your fingers, everyone’s clothes turn white, Bright Mac and Pear Butter are dressed in a tuxedo and a wedding gown, and the entire place is decorated accordingly.

You snap your fingers once again as Octavia and Vinyl are right on the stage with you.

“Anon! We were trying to get to you but the crowd was bustling.” Vinyl says through tears of joy as Octavia simply hugs you tightly by the waist.

“Don’t leave us again, we’ve still got lots of music to play together.” Octavia tells you as you ruffle her and Vinyl’s mane.

“Speaking of music, mind if you two play for this lovely couple over here?”

“Sure thing boss!” Vinyl says with a renewed face of determination.

“Thanks you two.” you snap your fingers once more as everyone is put in the right place

The music is playing, the ambience is set, now it’s time. You stand right by Mayor Mare, who you’ve designated to once more officiate the wedding.

“But Anon, we’re already married.” Pear Butter throws in right at you.

“Well, ‘until death do us part’ right? You both died so here we are.” you explain as she gives you a hearty chuckle.

“Alright Mayor Mare, it’s go time.”

She gives you a nod of determination as you give her a nod back. You disappear from the scene as the wedding continues without you. There’s someone important that needs to hear the news first.

You enter your room to find Chrysalis who is half asleep. She’s facing away from the door so you sneak in and lie down beside her. Your arm finds your way around her body and you hold her in a tight embrace, “Hello, my sunshine. I’m back.”

“Hmm? Anon? Am I still dreaming?” Chrysalis drowsily asks.

“Yeah, you still are.” you lie as you give her a kiss on the forehead.

“I miss you, Anon...at least you’re really affectionate in my dreams...” she somberly rants on.

Affectionate huh?

You pick her up with both hands princess style as she starts to become more and more aware of her environment. Before she can speak, you pull her in and start nuzzling her by the nose.

“A-Anon!? W-What!?”

“Uhhhh, you’re ummm...you’re going lucid...”

She starts to look skeptic as you simply snap both of you to the wedding, and of course, you’d made sure to transform her into her pony form.

“Alright, let’s have a good time.”

You both got there just in time to witness the couple kiss. Which means...it’s party time.

You signal Vinyl and Octavia to switch up the genre and they start playing some catchy music. Considering there’s only two of them, you drop Chrysalis off to Pinkie and join in on them for a jamming session.

For a little while, the lot of you play some really catchy instrumentals. You even played some of your favorite ones since you’ve already taught them to Vinyl and Octavia before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgQdr8ZkTw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKLxc2NsNcg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptk_1Dc2iPY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W720XaOPa5w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNd4apsr3WE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx042F7StZU

You took this opportunity to actually sing for the crowd, and so you sing a classic, the English version of Fighting Gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyOf7OD5Ujs

It was a blast as everyone got really hyped from the song. Some of them even started dancing wildly to the beat. Though as it ended, you decided to start simmering down the party by singing love songs that’ll get the crowd going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCy19JV7t9o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gHoELwAas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzGuIKjSw5g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiIBKcd4m5Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQR0bXO_yI8

Right after, you signal Vinyl and Octavia to start playing slow dance music. Since they can manage on their own, you step down from the stage and decide to fulfill the dreams of a certain mare.

After bustling through the crowd, you soon find Chrysalis and take her by the hoof, leading the both of you to a more open space.

It’s the center of the party and there’s a group of ponies slow dancing. The group includes Pear Butter and Bright Mac, Pinkie and Maud, and several other pairs including you and Chrysalis.

“Anon, I know this is a dream but I can’t dance.”

“If this is a dream then none of it matters, just follow my lead.”

You take her right hoof with your left hand and place your right hand by her waist. She flinches a bit from your touch but soon places her left hoof on your right shoulder as the both of you rotate clockwise staring into each other’s eyes. Despite having to “tiptoe” to manage with your height, she’s getting the hang of it.

“A-Anon, this i-is embarrassing.” Chrysalis mutters through a pouty blush as you take advantage of your height and give her a peck on the forehead.

She blushes even harder as you pick her up off the ground and continue to dance except you’re just hugging her and spinning clockwise. Despite the silly demeanor of the sight, the both of you actually look pretty cute together.

The party goes on for a while in a similar enjoyable fashion. Food (prepared by you) is eaten, jokes are told, dances were danced, music was played, and most importantly, memories were made.

The party soon ends as the ponies start dispersing one by one.

“Nice singing earlier, Anon. I really liked ‘Fighting Gold’ was it?” Pinkie compliments you as you’re making your way towards your diner.

“Yeah, you should hear the Japanese version sometime.”

“Japa-what?” she curiously asks.

“Hehehe, you’ll see soon enough.”

“Okey Dokey Lokey.” she says as she starts bouncing off towards ‘Sugarcube Corner’.

“Hey, Anon?” you hear someone call out to you right after Pinkie leaves. You turn to see that it’s Applejack, with Pear Butter and Bright Mac.

“Yeah?”

“Ah jus’ wanted ta say…thanks, Anon. This birthday gift really will change everything from now on. You’ve done a lot fer the Apple family an’ we jus’ wanted you to know, if you ever need anythin’, we’re always here.” Applejack thanks you as she reaches out for a hug that you just returned.

Pear Butter and Bright Mac also reach in for a group hug as Pear Butter says, “Thanks, Anon.”

“Thanks fer everythin’, kind stranger. And, uhhhhh, what my daughter said.” Bright Mac fumbles as the three Apples laugh in unison.

“Well, my job is done. A good day to the lot of you. Until next time, Apple family.” you bid them goodbye as they do the same with you.

You and Chrysalis soon find yourselves back in the bedroom. With the sun having had set a few hours ago and your bellies stuffed with food and bodies tired from the activities, you stumble onto the bed immediately as does Chrysalis.

“Hey Chryssy, big spoon or small spoon?” you ask her.

“Ummmm, small spoon?” she answers as you quickly pull her in and hug her by her backside.

“A-Anon!” she attempts to protest, however, she melts into your embrace as you gently stroke her hair with your right hand.

She starts to feel drowsy as do you. She appears to think that she’s still lucidly dreaming so you give her a kiss on the cheek since she wouldn’t be able to remember if this moment was real or not. You can’t wait to see her reaction in the morning when she realizes you’re finally back, or her reaction to the events of today and see her confused expression debating whether it was all a dream or not. What a day tomorrow will be for you.

“Goodnight, Anon...” she says with a yawn.

“Goodnight, Chryssy...goodnight...” you whisper into her ear as the both of you finally fall into slumber.

Author's Note

This new chapter is way overdue. I apologize for that as I've been very busy with school. We even had to film to make a live action anime for our school project, and guess who had to edit it all. Anyhoo, I got sick too and moreover the season finale left me in shambles and a depressed mess. After all, my waifu is Pinkie. I'm happy she's happy, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt for me. However, I shouldn't make any excuses, I'm just glad the new 10th chapter special is up and I'm just sorry it took really long. I'll admit that this chapter isn't one of my best works in this fanfic and this probably wasn't as good as my previous chapters. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter anyway and I really hope you'll look forward to future chapters. Onwards and upwards everyone, our next chapter may be one for the holidays. Have a good one, fellas.

Night of scares

Author's Note

I apologize for being out for quite a while, but that's it. There's plenty of things I'd like to do but I just can't do them all. There's not enough time for everything, and yet sometimes, there's nothing better to do than doing nothing.

I will no longer defend Chapter 10 nor will I acknowledge it. I understand why most people disagree with it and I cannot deny their logical claims. If you picked this up again even after all these months, please don't let that Chapter make you drop the whole story. I'll do my best to put more quality to the future chapters, but in any case, let's just pretend that Chapter doesn't exist (except for future Chapter applications such as the existence of AJ's parents).

That's about it. I can't promise a schedule because I've been writing other novels and am getting back into music making for a visual novel I've had planned for years now. Enough of that now. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I certainly hope you'll look forward to more in the future. Take care now, and have a nice day.

Night of scares

“Hey Chryssy, how do I look?” you ask turning around from the body mirror by your dresser as you finally tighten the headband around your head.

It’s that time of the year again, the long awaited Halloween, or rather, Nightmare Night.

“Dashing as always, Anon. Who are you supposed to be again?” Chrysalis responds snugly lying on your bed with a tilt of her head.

You look yourself in the mirror one last time wearing your mercenary uniform as you tell her, “Well, I’m supposed to be a pretty cool guy I always really liked. I’m sure no one here really knows who he is but he is a great man.”

“And who’s that?”

“Solid Snake.”

“Well ‘Solid Snake’ looks good on you.”

“Thanks!” you heartily reply as you leave the mirror in your room and start making your way towards Chrysalis.

“And who are you supposed to be tonight? Yourself?” you quip noticing that she’s still in her base changeling form which gets you a pout from her.

“I’m still thinking. There’s so many choices with so little time, I’m just not so sure of any of it.” Chrysalis confesses looking a little distressed.

“Well, you gotta be sure soon. It’s almost 6 PM and we gotta group up with the others for Nightmare Night. Why don’t I leave you here for a bit while I go rendezvous with Rarity? Maybe you just need a little alone time, how does that sound?” you smirk as you let out some light military lingo.

“I think I’d like that.” she says with a smile which grows evermore as you responds by ruffling her mane.

You get up and sign off by giving Chrysalis a cheesy little salute to which she does the same rolling her eyes.

You’ve already made your way down the staircase as you happily exit your diner. With a smile on your face you start striding towards your destination, Carousel Boutique.

As you ring her doorbell, your thoughts are filled with the multitude of reactions that Rarity may have from your Nightmare Night costume until your pondering is interrupted by the swing of a door.

“Why, Anonymous! You certainly look dashing this fine evening. Though I must say your costume could use a little more...color.” Rarity compliments with a spout of her accent and a twirl of her hoof.

“Well, that kind of ruins the idea of camouflage.”

“Fair enough. And please, do come in.” she hospitably offers sidestepping and welcoming you inside of her home.

“If I remember correctly, it’s your very first Nightmare Night here in Equestria is it not?” Rarity asks with glee.

“Not exactly. We had something similar back in my world.”

“Well it looks like you still pulled out all the stops this year with that stunning outfit. I take it you’re dressed as something from your world too.”

“I’m supposed to be a mercenary. And please, call me Snake.” you request with a smile.

“I don’t exactly know what a mercenary is but note taken.”

“Maybe I’ll tell you someday. But hey, what about your outfit?” you curiously ask after noticing she doesn’t have a costume on, just like Chrysalis. She’s definitely pampered herself up for the night though, like the only thing she’s missing is a costume and maybe some makeup.

“Well, Sweetie Belle told me she wanted to make her own Nightmare Night costume this year. She even pleaded me not to interfere by secretly making her a costume like last year so I happily let her this time.”

“Well, that answers Sweetie Belle’s costume. What about you?“ you ask once more with a smirk.

“If you know me, you know I always like to have matching outfits with my sweet little sister.”

“That’s a sentiment I can appreciate. I’m guessing you’re waiting for her to see what you should change into then?”

“Spot-on intuition, Anonymous. My never ending wardrobe should have whatever she’s prepared. And if I don’t, well, you wouldn’t mind me asking for a favor, would you?” she asks with big puppy eyes.

You quickly give in to the sheer adorableness tapping in to your heart, “You have my word, Rarity. Mind if I go check on her?”

“Thank you, darling! You should find her in her room.” she answers you squeeing in delight.

You give her a smile and a nod before you start moving. Just as you try to remember where exactly Sweetie Belle’s room is while you’re treading the stairs, your memory is jogged by the muffled sounds of a certain somepony hastily rummaging through her room.

This can’t be good.

“Knock knock.” you say and do as you reach Sweetie Belle’s door.

“A-Anon? What are you doing here? I’m uhhhhh...kinda busy right now.”

“You were supposed to say who’s there. What’s poppin’, Sweetie Belle?” you tell her as you enter the room.

The place is a mess as you’d expected. Boxes and clothes and pretty much everything else is scattered around the room as Sweetie Belle keeps rummaging through each pile of everything.

“Looking for your costume I presume?”

“Worse, I don’t HAVE a costume yet.” Sweetie Belle pants nervously while searching a different pile.

“I’m looking for anything I can find to make some sort of Nightmare Night costume. If I can’t get a costume ready then Rarity will get me a costume for tonight instead, and she’ll definitely make me wear costumes she’ll prepare next year too, and the year after that, and the year after that, and...” she’s stopped looking through her piles and started to be deep in thought about the future as she keeps repeating her last line over and over.

SweetieBelle.exe has stopped working.

“Hey, what’s wrong with that? Your big sister’s just looking out for you.” you kneel and lay your hand by her withers and caress her comfortingly.

“But she does that all the time, not just on Nightmare Night. I know I’m more independent than before ever since I got my Cutie Mark but I wanna feel like it too. That’s why I told her I’d make my own costume this year. I was really happy when she agreed but one thing led to another with my job helping other ponies with their Cutie Marks and I just forgot to make my own costume. If I’ve got nothing to show for to Rarity, then she won’t think I’m as independent as she thought I was when she trusted me with making my own costume.” she buries her face in her hooves as she contemplates her next move.

“Hey, it’s okay champ. We all forget some things here and there, and we all definitely need a little help sometimes. So why don’t I help you? What do you say?”

“I don’t know, Anon. Won’t that make me irresponsible if I relied on others to get me out of a hole I dug?” she asks with a genuinely troubled look on her face.

“You forgot because you helped other ponies, right? I think that says something about how responsible you are. It’s good in my book at least.”

“Alrighty then. Thanks, Anon.” Sweetie Belle smiles widely and gives you a warm hug, well, as much of a hug as a little filly can wrap her small hooves around you.

“Well then Sweetie, any ideas what you wanna be this Nightmare Night?”

“Hmmmm...not really. I was just looking for anything I could find, but what do you got for me?” Sweetie Belle asks in wonderous anticipation.

With great passion, you transform into each creature that you enumerate, “For one I could turn you into a zombie, the complete set even with the dripping blood and the white bandages. Or if you’d like, a batpony, with an added bonus of night vision, sharp fangs, bat wings, and the whole shebang. Or the Eldritch deity, Cthulhu, with controllable tentacles and reality mending. Or the Lovecraftian Shoggoth, with...” you stop as you notice your form has been turning a little...graphic. You’re certain of it since even Sweetie Belle is shuddering in fear a bit.

“Maybe we shouldn’t delve too much into my old world. How about something a little less scary?”

“Y-yeah, I think I’d like that b-better.” Sweetie reaffirms as she still shudders.

“Welp, here we go.” you reach out your hand to Sweetie and touch the tip of her horn with your pointing finger. The room is then filled to the brim with a blinding bright light.

The light dies down and Sweetie Belle has been completely transformed. Now she’s ready for Nightmare Night.

She taps her hooves on the floor which makes a clunking sound that resonates within the room. “What am I supposed to be, Anon?”

“You’re a robot, Sweetie Belle.”

“A what?”

“You’re a miracle of the future. Metallic fragments brought together and birthed with sentience. The essence of life fueling your circuits and wires coupled with the soul that branches into the cosmos of infinite possibilities, crawling through one future at a time within the multiverse.”

As you end your speech, Sweetie Belle just looks at you dumbfoundedly with a tilt of her mechanical head.

“You’re a machine.” you sum up.

“Oh, well that makes sense. But what’re these things I’m seeing? They look like...data?”

“That’s your User Interface, or Heads-up Display, or whatever you’d like to call it. It shows you information about yourself and what you’re looking at through a scanning mechanism.” you haphazardly explain.

Sweetie Belle simply tilts her head still in confusion.

“Here, why don’t you read through this manual instead?” you materialize and hand her a very well-compressed but detailed pamphlet that should educate her thoroughly about her new form.

“Wow, thanks Anon!” she gleefully replies with a smile after giving the cover a quick skim.

“Welp, you better not keep your sister waiting. Same goes for me, I’ve got a mare to see. See you in a bit, Sweetie Bot.”

You notice her give a little chuckle at your quip just as you fade back into your diner after snapping your fingers.

“What’s poppin’ Chryssy?! It’s just about time to leave, you find a costume you like?” you shout from the bottom of the stairs which gets you a simple “Eep!” in return.

“C-coming!” Chrysalis timidly shouts back as you hear her trotting down the steps slowly.

You notice her hooves first as she appeared before your eyes bit by bit. It seems she hasn’t changed into a costume at all. You’re finally certain she hasn’t now that she’s come down the steps to the diner area.

“What’s with the getup? You too embarrassed to show me the costume you picked?” you joke around as Chrysalis partially hides her face behind her hair.

“This...this is my costume.” she looks away from you.

Stepping up her game, huh? She’s probably trying to ease herself into social acceptance, either that or she’s testing the waters. Regardless, you better be supportive instead of being reluctant.

“Well, don’t you look stunning in your costume, Chryssy?”

“I-it’s supposed to be scary!” she barks back.

“Oh no. Oh my, how frightening. You nearly scared me to death with that costume.” you reply in a monotone voice, moving your hands hysterically.

She gets even angrier, and you can tell because she’s pouting now.

You give her a chuckle, “I think you look great, Chryssy.” you cup her cheek and give it a little stroke.

“Let’s j-just go! We’re gonna be late.” she dismisses your affection with a blush as she walks past you.

“Onwards and upwards then.” you start to walk beside her, a hand resting on her barrel, towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Ah! It’s Chrysalis! Blast her! Blast her with magic!” Pinkie Pie hysterically shouts in fear.

Well it wouldn’t be the first time someone’s said that tonight. It was just one filly dressed as a ghost with a white blanket though. Still, everyone else gave curious and fearful looks your way.

And then there’s Pinkie.

“No, Pinkie. It’s just me and Sunshine. Also, where's Spike?” you defuse the would’ve-been situation seeing as Twilight’s horn started to glow and her fur started to show sweat.

“He said he had his own schedule to follow for the night, but, that IS an impressive shapeshifter spell.” Twilight compliments Chrysalis with a rub of her chin. Well, technically it IS a spell, at least you think it is.

“T-thanks, I...used to study magic thoroughly for years.” Chrysalis quickly makes an excuse. A double edged excuse it was, for little does she know that she merely triggered Twilight’s curiosity.

“Really? What branch did you focus on?” Twilight continues. Well, at least she’s asking out of curiosity and not doubt.

“Well, just about anything I could get my hooves on, really.” she goes on.

“Even magic for flying kites?!” Starlight gleefully chimes in.

And so the huddle forms, everyone drowning Chrysalis in questions. Even Dash joined in.

You step back a few meters and take this moment to observe all their costumes.

Pinkie’s gone full bozo with a clown outfit, which actually looks cuter on her than scary.

Dash looks like she’s part of the Royal Guard. But from the darker shades of the armor and the intricate design on her wings, she’s supposed to be a bat pony.

Twilight looks pretty much the same except she changed her color palette to look like Celestia’s. She’s even got the flowing mane right. You’ve got to make fun of her, or Celestia, later, but just a bit. Lots of bits.

Applejack has an actual pumpkin for a mask and is supposed to be, from what you can only assume, a headless horseman. Or at least Equestria’s version of them. Maybe a dullahan? She’s certainly got the armor for it.

Fluttershy and Rarity are still missing in action.

Glim Glam’s wearing a simple military general uniform. She’s also walking towards you.

You give her a rigid salute as she draws near. Still looking to the night sky, you greet, “Good evening, General Glimmer ma’m!”

“At ease, Private Anonymous.” she jests as well.

You give her a chuckle, “Aren’t you gonna stick with the herd?” you say, pointing towards the rest of the gang that are present.

“Three is a crowd, four is a problem and five just isn’t my cup of tea. I remember what it’s like being huddled by everypony so I try to give people the privilege of a little space when I can.”

“Are you still being huddled in your little guidance counseling office?” you smirk at her.

“More than the number of mates hitting on you.” she triumphantly returns with a smug grin.

“You’re pretty good.” you give the trademark shtick line as said by Snake to stay in character, “But zero isn’t greater than zero.”

The two of you have a grand little time laughing.

As the howling dies down with the air returning to your lungs, you ask “So why a military uniform?”

“Well, it’s not very common here and I thought it’d be kinda fitting because of...my past.” she cringes a bit at that last part, “And now that I think about it it was probably a bad idea reminding myself and everypony else of what happened before. Hahahaha.” she nervously laughs.

“Hey now, I think it’s a great costume.” you attempt to comfort her, which you probably did if her now-crimson cheeks are any indication.

Shifting the topic, she stutters, “S-So where’s Rarity?”

“I don’t know. She should be here by now.” you answer, just as curious as the mare in front of you.

“Anonymous!” Rarity Bellows in the distance, catching everyone’s attention.

You turn to see that Sweetie Bot is quickly hovering towards you on all fours using her rocket hooves.

“Hey Anon, check out what I can do.” Sweetie Bot starts to fade away, her mechanical exterior mimicking the environment and flawlessly camouflaging her from the eyes of the many.

“No! God, she’s dead! She’s dead and I killed her! How could I!?” you drop to your knees and start to dig your fingers into the ground.

Your friends all give you a curious look, and even a few passersby.

“Wait, no! Anon, I’m here! See!?” she begins to reanimate her original form into the world seen by eyes.

You give her a boop on the snoot, “And I knew that.”

You laugh at her expense as she simply responds with a metallic pout. At least everyone else seemed to think your hysterical overdramatization of the prospect of death was funny.

“Dear heavens, Anon. I’ve been looking for you.” Rarity finally catches up.

“When I saw Sweetie Belle, I immediately tried looking for a costume I had that, and, well, I don’t exactly have anything made of metal. Could you be a dear and-“

*snap*

“Done.”

Rarity is now clad in a robotic design similar to Sweetie Belle’s.

“I don’t mean to be picky, but don’t you have something less...mechanical?” she taps her plated chest for emphasis.

With another snap of your fingers, her exterior is coated with synthesized membranes, skin and white fur. You didn’t forget the pristine hair on her either. She looks organic from a distance, but everything else about her screams she’s a robot. Especially her face. You made sure that stayed the same.

“Oh, darling! This is simply marvelous.” her programmed robotic voice plays.

“Anon, what did you do?” Twilight perks up curiously.

“I turned her into a robot. A complex machine, to sum up, my Princess of the Sun.”

She stares at you blankly, ignoring your answer entirely because of your little joke. One of many, for sure.

The door to Fluttershy’s cottage finally opens, grabbing everyone’s attention. Except for you and Twilight. Your stare off with her hasn’t ended.

But suddenly, your hairs stand on end. An impending presence overcomes you. You feel like something’s...different.

“I still don’t get who you’re supposed to be.” Fluttershy, with an adorable vampire costume, speaks to her companion as they exit the humble cottage.

“No one cared who I was until I put on the mask.”

You turn around to see what you can only presume is Discord. With a simple costume, all he has is a thick brown coat and...a mask. Those and no hair on his head too. And if there’s one quality about him that’s quick to notice, it’s that…

“Whoa, you’re pretty big, Discord. Bigger than usual at least.” Pinkie points out.

Big. Heh. Hehehe. Hahahahahaha.

You start to approach him slowly, rematerializing your clothes into a blue collared shirt, a black jacket, and a light brown pair of pants.

“Are you supposed to be an egghead?” Rainbow Dash jokes, alluding to his bald feature. Without looking at her, you stop her from getting closer by putting your arm in front of her. She gives you a confused look as you march on.

You’re now at a point blank range from him. You notice that he’s about a head or two taller than you.

“Oh, I forgot. You two haven’t met yet, have you? Anon, this is my friend, Dis-“

“Whoa, you can’t bring any friends.” you cut Fluttershy off.

“Huh? Wh-what do you mean?” she’s severely confused at the moment.

“She’s not my friend.” the bit continues.

As does Fluttershy’s confusion. “D-D-Discord!?”

She looks at him in awe, and quite possibly, grief.

“If I pull that off, will you die?”

“It would be extremely painful.”

“You’re a big guy.”

“For you.”

A staring contest ensues between the two of you.

“Uhhhh, y’all reckon we should go ahead?” Applejack suggests.

“We should.” Anonpone arrives, with the color palette of a standard brown horse but with the clothes of a standard human.

Everyone else turns to the little filly.

“Wait, that voice. Is that you, Anon?” Twilight starts.

“Yeah, it’s him.” Chrysalis remembers.

“I’ll explain on the way.” Anonpone starts moving.

With a shrug from Dash, everyone follows. Except for you and Discord.

“I see you’re well-acquainted with human culture.”

“I find it all amusing to say the least.” he twists around you, given his long form.

“Have you heard of anime?”

“Hmmm? What’s that?” he shoots you a curious look.

“You and I are gonna have plenty of fun.”

You’ve been walking with Discord for a while, trying to catch up with the rest of your group. The discussion have been pretty much just about anything you two could think of.

“And that’s why I never did a triple somersault off a cliff while stuffing a chicken with carrots and beer at 4:27 AM on a Tuesday ever again.”

“Really?” Discord asks.

“No.”

You share a laugh with him as you both walk along.

“Now that’s my kind of humor. And speaking of humor, would you be down for scaring a few foals and fillies tonight?” his tone turned a little mischievous as he said so. Well, he IS a harbinger of chaos after all.

“Hmmm...I mean I would, but it might be a little too...bland for me.” you answer honestly.

“However do you mean?” he asks.

“Well, my kind of scares and horror might be a little too extreme for Equestrian standards.”

Discord plasters a skeptical look on his face, “Getting cocky, are we?” he raises an eyebrow.

“No no, it’s just…it’s either it’s too boring for me or I’ll scar these ponies for life.”

“Yep, definitely cocky.” he walks past you.

You give him a shrug. Maybe someday you’ll show him. Or maybe he’ll show you. You don’t really know, but you sure would like to eventually.

“Any other plans for tonight then?” you catch up to him.

“Actually, no. Not really. It’s all I do every Nightmare Night.”

The two of you finally reach the Town Hall where everyone is gathered.

Sounds like a speech is ensuing. You’d listen but you’re still talking to Discord.

Before you can continue though, the cheers from the crowd make you and Discord look their way.

“Please welcome, Princess Luna!” Mayor Mare announces just as the blue princess makes an appearance.

Huh, you haven’t seen her in a while.

You both look at each other, a more malicious expression on Discord’s face.

“Care for a wager?”

This time it’s your turn to walk past him.

A tug on your hand stops you from moving further, so you turn around.

“If I win, I get a free breakfast coupon in your diner.”

Hmmm...well that IS pretty cheap. And Luna IS a big mare. Sounds like fun, why the hell not?

“Fine I guess. But if I win, I get to take over one “Tea Time with Fluttershy”.”

He flinches at the thought, but gives in.

“...Fine.”

“I’m assuming Luna is the bounty?” you inquire.

“First one to get her to scream wins. No rules.”

“No violence and danger and you got yourself a bet.” you extend your hand.

He hands you his paw with a firm grip and he disappears with a flash.

Showtime baby.

The town’s speech is over and the night has commenced at 6:30 PM.

You start to approach your group with Discord nowhere in sight. Oddly enough, Luna seems to have joined the roster.

“Ah, how goes, Anonymous? It has been a while.” you take notice how she’s not wearing a costume.

“Great actually. You should come by our diner sometime.”

“I will certainly look forward to it. And if I may ask, what hath inspired your costume for this Nightmare Night?”

You crack her a smile, happy for simply asking about your attire.

“Well, let me tell you on the way.”

“So how’s your sister?”

“Why don’t you ask her? She’s right over there.”

You turn around to see Twilight who’s at the back of the group. Good to see she’s got a sense of humor.

“Hehehehe. Could you give me a second?”

“Certainly.”

You excuse yourself and slip to the back of the group, passing by your friends who’re conversing with each other. Except for Sweetie Belle. She went off with Applebloom and Scootaloo at some point earlier. You could tell by how absolutely star struck her friends were with her costume. A shame that Anonpone had to leave as well, or rather, decided to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders. He always did have an affinity for defending the Holy Land, even if "Crusaders" WAS just in name. Deus Vult.

“Oh, Anon!” Fluttershy stops you, interrupting her conversation with Rarity.

“Hmmm?” you match your pace with hers.

“I forgot to ask earlier, but do you know where Discord went?”

“Oh, well, ummmm...could we talk? Privately, I mean.”

“Oh my, is he scaring foals and fillies again?” she leans in with you as to keep the conversation from unwanted listeners.

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“We made a wager on who could make Luna scream first. I don’t know where he is, but he’s probably plotting something.”

“What were the stakes?” Fluttershy asks with keen interest.

“Either he’ll get breakfast on the house from me or I’ll get to take over one of his Tea Times with you.”

“Well then, I hope you win. Maybe that’ll teach him a lesson about pranking.” she smiles genuinely.

“Thanks.” you ruffle her mane for a second as you give Rarity a smile and start to move along.

“Oh, wait. Anon.” Fluttershy speaks, but you’ve already moved a little too far for you to hear her voice, “Well, maybe later then.” she tells herself.

You want that “Tea Time with Fluttershy”, and you’re gonna get it.

“Say Celestia, what can you tell me about your sister?”

“Well Anon, I’d gladly tell you, but I’m not Celestia. And lay off with the jokes.” she pouts, a little annoyed and peeved.

Hmmm… a noble sacrifice, for a greater purpose.

“Fair enough. I’ll stop, but I’d like to know more about Luna.” maybe you’ll get to know something important about Luna that you could use.

Twilight wears a small smile at your words, but her joy turns into curiosity as you ended your sentence. “May I ask why?”

You give her an abrupt, “No.”

She gives you a deadpan look before continuing on, “Nightmare Night is a yearly celebration originating from the legends of Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon is the corrupted version of Princess Luna that possessed her, ultimately leading to her thousand year banishment to the moon. She only appeared recently. Since then, she’s been using her ‘dream walking’ ability to suppress ponies’ nightmares.”

Huh, well that’s pretty interesting. You didn’t know that before, but that’s not exactly the kind of information you were looking for. The “dream walking” thing might mean that she has a resistance to fear and scares. That’s not good.

“Oh, well I was hoping you could tell me something more personal. Like her dislikes or something.”

Twilight has a moment of realization. “You’ll probably need to ask Princess Celestia if you really want to know. Sorry, Anon.”

“But you ARE Princ-” you’re cut off by her menacing glare.

You remain still, and thankfully, she presses on, Though her expression still remains the same.

“Hey Twilight?”

“Yes, Anon?” she looks your way.

You pull up a camera and take a picture, yourself disappearing just as the flash blinds her.

You better scare Luna before Discord does. The first scare should have the most buildup.

The group has finally reached the edge of town. Starting here to systematically acquire candy from all the houses and have fun with maximum efficiency and in the shortest amount of time, as planned by Twilight so everyone can go back home early and give candy back to everyone else. Apparently the festival gets more active as time passed, and so they’d opted to hand out candy late into the night.

Rainbow Dash gives the door a firm knock. The door slowly opens.

“Hmmmm...” Luna proceeds skeptically, opening the door to reveal no one.

You tap her left side.

“Huh?” she turns to see no one.

She turns back to the door and-

“AHHHH!!!”

The entire group, save for Luna, flinches as you scream like a Banshee, a mere few centimetres from Luna’s face.

“Anon!!!” even Rainbow got scared, you can tell from her crimson cheeks of embarrassment.

Luna has only been staring blankly at you. You notice her expression turning into a smirk, then you hear a suppressed giggle, and then laughter.

You snap your fingers in disappointment, “Darn!”

“Your attempt to exploit my laxness is admirable, but I cannot be scared.” she smugly returns as her laugh dies down.

“Is that a challenge?” you cross your arms with an eyebrow raised.

“Perhaps.”

Derpy comes into the scene, confusion overcoming her in her cute little muffin costume. She’s literally wearing a muffin.

“Sorry about that, Derpy.” you take a chunk out of her costume and gobble it down.

“Was that even edible?” Twilight asked.

“It ish now.” you speak muffledly.

“It tastes like Blueberry.” Pinkie confirms as she’s eating a chunk herself.

You make sure to reanimate the chunks you’d taken from Derpy’s costume. Though she’s just happy to be here, giving the rest of your group some candy.

Everyone’s leaving already after thanking Derpy, and in the middle of conversation, a lighting bolt strikes right beside Luna. Thankfully, Discord acquires the same results as you. Scared mares, but no Alicorns. Except for Twilestia.

You look up to find him lying on a dark cloud with an expression of disappointment.

“Discord!” Twilight barks at him.

“Awww c’mon! Have a little fun tonight, Celestia. You haven’t celebrated ‘Nightmare Night’ in ages!”

Hey now, you said YOU wouldn’t make those jokes, not Discord. You feel pleased with this loophole, mostly because of how Twilight’s pouting right now.

Getting back on track, the only difference this time is that Luna is giving him a gaze of boredom and contest.

“No cigar either huh?” he asks you rhetorically.

You shake your head at him, thankful that he didn’t win but still worried about how high her resistance is to getting scared.

The group simply starts to move again, but you stand still staring at them go as Discord lowers his cloud until he’s next to you.

“This won’t be easy, won’t it?” you ask.

“I believe it’s time to pull out all the stops.”

No, not for you. Not yet, at least.

Nothing’s working!

You’d tried everything that’s basic enough to scare ponies. From floating ghost blankets revealing nothing inside them to creatures of the Everfree forest. Discord even planted a rubber snake on her barrel, which you transformed into a real snake. You’d made sure it would be harmless, but Discord took over your take over by turning into the snake. It had Discord’s face on it, but before he could even give her a scare, Luna tried to bite him.

It’s already been long since everyone else had gone back to their homes to give candy. And yet you’re still chasing Luna with Discord.

Maybe it’s time to give her a little taste of human horror. Just a little taste.

“Luna!” a voice cries out from the Everfree where Luna is near.

“Sister?” Luna approaches nearer towards the forest, stopping right by its edge.

“Luna!” after confirming what she’d heard, she enters.

Deeper and deeper into the shrubs and trees, she shouts, “Sister! What art thou doing here?!”

The voice keeps leading her on, until she’s lost in a maze of greenery.

The wind blows gently, but eerily as well.

She finds herself paralyzed, not from fear, but from actual incapacity.

A sharp object trails its way along her neck. She turns quickly and...nothing.

She begins to sweat profusely as she hears whispers from the beyond.

Several hands rise from the ground and attempt to pull her down. Immediately, she felt herself regaining control in her movement. She broke off from the hands and started to gallop back towards town.

Her movements are stopped by two tentacles grabbing her by her hind legs, slowly pulling her towards the bush that they originate from.

As she got close, she shouts, “O-oh no! I left my candy bag!”

Wha-?

“What? Jesus Christ, Luna!” you emerge from the bushes.

“I know not of this Christ, but I do know that your tactics are in need of some work.” she smugly returns, literally unphased by all of your attempts.

You’re tired and a little miffed now. Though you still raise your hand dejectedly, and summon Luna’s candy bag.

“Yay!” she takes it in her hooves and starts munching on one of the candies.

“I’ll just...head back for now, Luna. Stay safe.”

She says something through her munching but you can’t exactly comprehend. Coming back, you notice how Discord’s flying towards Luna into the forest. Taking his turn huh?

You arrive at your diner, finding Chrysalis by the table nearest to the entrance inside.

“Sorry I’m late. I had a bet with Discord.”

“Did you win?” she asks.

“Neither of us have, and I don’t think either of us will.”

“You probably would’ve won anyway. Here, wanna solve Crosswords with me while we wait for other ponies to come by and ask for candy?” she pats the seat next to her. That sure is comforting, and you always did like how quirky she was like how she liked solving Crosswords.

“I think I’d like that.” you take a seat next to her and hang your arms at the backrest.

“Oh, Fluttershy was looking for you earlier.” she says, keeping her eyes on the paper.

“Really?”

“Mhmm. Say, what’s an adorable animal? Three letters, second letter is O.”

“You.” you boop her on the nose and wrap her in a hug.

She’s speechless, blushing profusely as she instinctively leans into your hug. You stand up after a few seconds and scratch her ears just as you leave.

“It’s probably a ‘dog’. I’ll be back in a bit, I just need to see Fluttershy.”

“A-ah! I-i-it is ‘dog’. Th-thanks.” she stutters, the blush still decorating her face in embarrassment.

With a smile, you teleport yourself to Fluttershy’s cottage and give it a knock.

“Who is it?” she asks.

“It’s me, big guy.”

“Discord?”

“No, other big guy.”

She opens the door, “Anon! Please, come in.”

“Sorry I was too into Discord’s bet with me tonight. I probably should’ve just been enjoying the night instead.” not that you didn’t enjoy yourself, but it could’ve been a little better.

“Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“About tonight?”

“No, Discord’s bet.”

“Hmmm? Did he concede?” you ask, hopeful to get an affirmative.

“No, but I could help you win.”

Now you’re interested, not because of how you’d like to win, but at this point, because of how there’s something that can actually scare Luna.

“What is it?” you grasp her withers firmly, “S-sorry about that.”

She giggles at your excitement, “That’s alright. Anyway, when Princess Luna returned, Princess Celestia asked us to help her get back on her hooves.”

“And?”

“Well, she was helping me bathe my critters when it was my turn to help her. Apparently, she really liked animals too, but…”

“But?” you continue your single-syllable questions.

“But one of the tubs had a...rubber duckie in it.”

“...”

“...That’s it?”

“Oh my, she was so frightened when we got to it. I had to take all of them out before we could continue. But please don’t tell anypony else. I just figured that it could help you.”

“It will, thanks Fluttershy.” you ruffle her mane once more, her head leaning into your hand.

“Good luck now.” she gives you a wink.

“The fire rises.” with a snap, you disappear.

You reappear and her a piece of candy before disappearing again.

She can’t possibly make this up, and you’ve got to see it for yourself.

Back in the forest where Discord still is, desolately failing to scare Luna.

You see that she even has a bag of popcorn with her, enjoying the Draconequus’ displeasure.

Stealthily now, you plant a rubber duckie in her bag. You pull Discord from the skies and hide in a bush.

“Hmmm? What’s this?” he stares at Luna, looking for any signs of what you’d done.

“Check this out.” you tell him.

“Discord? Huh” Luna shrugs at Discord’s absence and blindly reaches down for some more popcorn.

Her hoof touches something a little less poppy or corny. It’s something a little more… rubber.

She looks down as her eyes turn into pinpricks upon realizing what it is.

For icing on the cake, you make it go-

“Quack!”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

She jumps, like, REALLY jumps, as in, “several feet into the air” jumps.

All that’s left in the mystical scenery of the forest is a spilled bag of popcorn with a rubber duckie next to it. It’s almost artistic even.

Looks like Luna’s not coming back.

“Well played...very...well...played.” Discord gives you slow and monotonous claps as he pauses.

“How did you know though?” he asks, leaning in as if you’d immediately give your answer.

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out.” you shrug as you start walking away.

“I suppose it doesn’t really matter now does it?” he sighs and starts to dejectedly follow you back into town.

Jeez, he looks pretty bummed out. You can’t tell if it’s from losing the bet or his “Tea Time with Fluttershy”, but you’ll do your best anyway.

“Look, big guy. I’ll be the bigger guy and share that ‘Tea Time’ with you and Fluttershy instead of just me. It’ll be just the three of us, what do ya say?” you wrap an arm around him and poke his chest.

“Really?” his yellow eyes light up.

“Only if you promise to eat in my diner when you can. Your pay.”

“I’ll bring the bagels!”

The plan is simple (Part 1)

Author's Note

Shortest chapter from all I've had, but I still hope you like it. I had quite a fun time making this chapter, mostly because of the world building I put. Though it's different, I hope you like it too. Have a good read now.

The plan is simple (Part 1)

“The Princesses what?”

You skim through the letter once more, making sure you read that right.

It’s a fine Saturday evening as you reside in Twilight’s castle after she called you over. Princess must’ve finally had a little free time to send over a letter, especially considering how remarkable the penmanship is.

“That’s right, Anon. They want to see you.” Twilight reassures.

“This isn’t about last Nightmare Night, is it?” a sense of worry stirs within you.

She shrugs, “I don’t know, the letter’s pretty vague. But if it was, I’d be worried.”

“Welp, can’t just ignore it I guess. Besides, I need to see Luna anyway.”

“After what you did? Why?” a look of curiosity and concern plasters her face.

“Hey now, it was just a simple prank. But anyway, what you told me about Nightmare Moon gave me a hypothesis, and I’d like to test it.”

“Oh, mind if I ask what it is?” she leans in, the will to discover overcoming her.

“Yes, I do mind,” not really, “but if I’m right, you’ll probably find out soon enough.”

Her pouting aura is strong, but she relents, “So when are you gonna go?”

“It says here by next week at the latest. But anytime’s good, so probably now then.”

“Have fun in Canterlot then. I know their both a little, *ahem*...’old’, and even if they don’t seem like it because they're always tending to royal duties, trust me, the princesses know how to have a good time.” she whispered a little as the sentence went on.

“I believe every word of that. Now, you stay here and do the usual.” you summon up a copy of yourself and give him a pat on the back.

“You got it, boss. Anything else?” he queries before you leave.

“Tell ‘Sunshine’ where I am and what I’m doing. I’ll probably come back tonight,” you give him a wink, signaling that it’s actually Chrysalis, “And if anything really bad happens, destroy this world and reanimate an identical one again.” you joke knowing that Twilight’s listening.

“...A-again?” concern overcomes Twilight as her head starts to fill itself with many different questions.

“That was a joke, Twilight.” you ruffle her mane, calming her down considerably.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve business to attend to.”

*Snap*

Ah, Canterlot Castle. The aroma of a regal lifestyle coupled with the overwhelming royalty of the masterfully-crafted halls brings a smile to your face. It reminds you of how stunning a Secular life is back on Earth. That is, if you make it to the Vatican at least. Then again, the diarchy of the princesses, to an extent, could be considered a religion. Do they run a religion? Are they considered Goddesses? Are you considered a God? Are you gonna get some fresh mutz on this vegetarian panini you just conjured? Yes, yes you will. At least you can answer that question.

These halls sure are large. So large that its emptiness and the view almost feels like you’re in a beautifully peaceful pocket dimension. That is, until a pale blue Royal Guard Earth pony rounds the corner from afar.

He spots you and puts on a combat stance, “Halt!”

A natural response seeing as a large stranger has bypassed the main entrance, but you’ll have none of that, “Ah, excuse me good sir! Would you happen to know where the kitchen is? I am in need of fresh mutz for this vegetarian panini!”

He narrows his eyes and lowers his guard a little, “Sir Anonymous! We hadn’t expected you to visit so soon. My apologies for the hostility.”

“That’s quite alright, sir…?”

“Steel Brigade, sir Anonymous.” he bows.

“Raise that snoot, soldier. Just call me Anon, or Bob, or Tom, or Big Guy. Just call me anything really, but I do prefer Big Guy.”

“Certainly, ummm, Big Guy.” he hesitantly responds.

“Now you’re getting it, Brigade. Well then, would you assist me in finding the palace kitchen?” you politely request.

“I’m afraid not sir, I’m on Guard Duty. I cannot leave my post until I am permitted to do so or my shift ends. Though I can escort you to the nearby Royal Advisor’s office if you’d like.” he points a hoof down the hall behind you.

“I’d be quite grateful if you did.”

With a smile, he trots past you as you follow.

Shortly, you arrive at the office.

“Thank you, kindly.” you tell him just as he resumes his shift.

*knock knock knock*

“Come in!”

“It is I!” you announce just as you enter.

The black batpony with a pale mane gets startled at your rambunctious entrance.

After realizing how startled she was, she attempts to slightly cover the lower half of her face with both her wings to hide the shade of crimson that has encompassed it.

“Huh, I thought you’d be a unicorn.” you speak your mind out loud.

she returns to her regular standing position as she answers you with a quirky, high-pitched voice, “Batponies tend to need much less sleep than regular ponies, and Princess Celestia says that’ll be helpful for all the paperwork.”

Fair enough. She must be quite the prodigy to be the Royal Advisor then.

“Oh, you must be Anonymous. I’m Nightshade Blues. I apologize if I may be a little air-headed at times.” she confesses.

“Not at all. I’m sure you’re a wonderful mare. You’re the Royal Advisor after all.”

Nightshade seems to feel a little better at your words.

“So, would you like to go meet the Princesses?” she asks.

“Gee, I sure would but I still need to get a fresh piece of mutz before I do.” you show her the panini in your hand.

“Mutz?” is all she manages to muster as she stares at your incomplete sandwich.

“Yeah, mutz as in mutz-arella.”

“Ah, the cheese? That’s the first time I’d ever heard somepony phrase it like that. I...kinda like it. Mutz…”

She stares off into the distance with a mesmerized look on her face, especially the eyes.

In a second, she snaps out of it as a sheepish look replaces her expression. “Ah! Sorry about that. Let me take you to the kitchen.”

She quickly flies over her desk and exits the door to her office.

“Sorry to bother you on such a fine evening this weekend.”

“It’s fine, really. The workload is much lighter during Saturdays and Sundays, plus, I work really fast reviewing the paperwork so I have a lot of free time doing nothing.”

“Sounds like a nice job.” you reply.

“Just wait until you hear the salary and benefits, which I cannot disclose with other individuals as per government legal agreement.”

You give her a little chuckle which she returns.

“So here we are, the Royal kitchen. You can find Princess Celestia over there by the throne room when you’re done.” she points a few rooms away from your current location.

“Isn’t the kitchen a little too incredibly close to the throne room?” you do find that to be an odd discovery.

“Well, Princess Celestia DID help design the Canterlot Castle.” she gives you a wink before trotting off back to her office.

With a simple wave goodbye and a smile, you piece it together in your head.

The humble little kitchen smells heavenly just as you enter. Thoughts of your own kitchen sprung up in your head, except it’s quite a lot bigger, and noisier. Where is that noise coming from?

You examine the room and find that a certain large white Alicorn is munching away at a whole cake...with no utensils.

She locks eyes at you as she notices your presence as well. A stock-still standoff ensues.

“Is it 4 PM already?” you ask no one in particular.

You give your watch a look and “Oh yeah, it’s 4 PM.”

You walk past her and start rummaging through the fridge a mere few meters behind her, “You know, there’s other comfort foods besides confectioneries and cakes, right?”

After a chew and a swallow, “Cakes are simply what I’ve become accustomed to after all these years, Anonymous. And I must say, I didn’t really expect you to visit this soon. A few hours haven’t even passed since I sent that letter to Twilight.”

“What can I say? I’ve got all the time in the world. Ah, there we go,” fresh mutz acquired, “Try this panini then. It’s got a bit of salt, but not too much.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. Past experiences have shown me that desert before meals won’t exactly be...well on the tummy.” she grimaces a little at the memory.

“But the mutz is fresh.”

“Can’t you just make a fresh one out of thin air?” she raises an eyebrow at you.

“It’s not the same…but no matter. The fridge will have to do.”

She takes another chomp out of the strawberry and vanilla cake.

“Where’s Luna then?”

With a chunk of cake in her mouth, she speaks “She’s usually asleep at this hour, but ponies tend to stay awake on Friday night so she has more free time on Saturdays. She could be anywhere right now.” Another chomp.

“Well then, off I go.” you start to zoom out the kitchen, “Eating too much cake can make your flanks go bigger!”

And out the door before you can even witness her fury. Though you might witness another mare’s fury as you just bumped into Luna, quite literally as well.

“Anonymous!”

“Nice day!” you boop her snoot.

She charges a stance as her horn starts to glow a soothing Midnight Blue.

“Wait! Don’t tell me you called me all the way here just to attack me!” you front a flesh barricade of your arms and a leg out of instinct despite knowing that you’ll still be fine, or at least you hope you’ll be fine.

Luna heaves a heavy sigh and disperses her aura of magic, “...No. Me and sister are fairly certain that you’re a kind stallion, however, regular inspection of threats to Equestria is still government protocol. Even princesses such as we are required to conform under such policies, though we would very much still take these seriously considering the fate of Equestria is at stake.”

“Why now though?”

“It had been a slow week and sister and I were looking to spend some time dilly-dallying with you considering how it is technically still under our Royal duties.”

Fair enough, you suppose.

“So how long will you two be checking up on me? And how do you do it?” curiosity mounts your head.

“Every now and then for about a year at most, with several exceptions on some lazy days of course. There was a time before Sparkle and friends were the Elements of Harmony. Few fragments of those Elements still reside within me and sister, allowing us to harbor few of their abilities. Abilities such as ‘Chaos Detection EX’. Should we sense any in you, we shall undergo investigative formations to discover whether you have ulterior motives or not.”

Quite the explanation.

“Considering you’re comfortable enough to tell me that, I’m guessing you won’t really need it then.”

She gives a nod of affirmation, “Do not rest so easy yet, Anonymous. Think not for a second that I do not have plans to get back at you for the previous Nightmare Night.”

“How do you even know it was me?” you defend yourself.

She narrows her eyes at you and whispers, “That rubber duckie had a question mark on it and I am certain of it.”

Darn, caught green-handed. No regrets leaving that question mark though, credit is given where credit is due.

“Better keep my guard up then. Anyway, you mentioned skills earlier, right? I’m assuming you’re already quite versed in them.”

“Certainly. Every individual possesses a set of magical skills. Often they can be learned and often it is unique to certain individuals dependent on circumstances. Some are passive that every creature has, while others are active only for certain creatures. Why do you ask all of a sudden?” she tilts her head in confusion.

“I had a little talk with Twilight during Nightmare Night about its history given that we have our own version called ‘Halloween’, and, well...she brought up Nightmare Moon.”

Luna shrinks a little as the name echoes into the halls.

“...A-and?”

“One of my skills is the ability to analyze other individuals’ set of passive and active skills. I noticed one of yours is ‘Dream Manifestation A+’.”

“What are you trying to get at, Anonymous?” she asks with a rather confused look on her face.

“I’m saying that I think Nightmare Moon is a product of your ‘Dream Manifestation A+’.”

“I already know that, Anonymous.” she answers in a monotone voice.

“Yeah, well, here’s the thing. Apparently, ‘Dream Manifestation’ is a unique skill on its own. The only recorded individual with it that I found in Twilight’s library is you. Yours is a semi-passive skill because it can only be used when its user reaches a certain emotional point, whether it’s joy, rage or whatever emotion it may be. From what I know and given that negative emotions have a much lower quota for ‘Dream Manifestation’ given their volatile nature, I think Nightmare Moon is born from your desolation, anger and sorrow. Luna, I...I don’t think she’s inherently evil. She was born from your feelings. If you had a point of limitless euphoria equaling your sorrow, a good Nightmare Moon would appear instead.” you explain quite thoroughly.

“It doesn’t matter now, Anon. The past is past, even if my sins still haunt me. Nightmare Moon was already dealt with.” she turns away from you.

You grasp her withers and turn her back, “That’s right, I think your sins still haunt you. So long as you live, so does she. Her physical form was destroyed, but she still lives in your subconscious where she was born. And that’s why you still have nightmares when you sleep.”

“H-how did you know that!?” the surprise sinks in her.

“Heh...It doesn’t matter now. Sadly, an evil Nightmare Moon was made and she still haunts you, but we can change that. I...have a hypothesis.”

You dig your fingers down her mane and hold her head with both hands, “You see, I have ‘Dream Manifestation EX’.”

A flash of light blinds you both, but when everything settles down, there she is.

“A-Anon! What did you do!?” Luna shrieks at the sight of Nightmare Moon.

After the other Alicorn also recovers, she looks around in confusion, but then shouts after a point of realization, “At last, the night will last forever once more! My revenge will be glorious!”

With a hand directed at Nightmare Moon, you chant, ‘Proof of Existence D’.”

“Anon, what happened to her?” Luna quizzes you.

“So you know how I don’t really talk about skills often? That’s because most creatures don’t really have any exceptionally mentionable skills unless they’re born with it or they study advanced magic. Surprisingly, even non-Unicorns can sometimes get some by studying magic. Anyway, only advanced users like you and me have powerful skills like ‘Dream Manifestation’, but every living creature has ‘Proof of Existence’, also known as a lifespan. The rank growth is relative to the creature’s lifespan and traces of life and experience, but it’s pretty much mostly just a cosmetic skill because that’s all it does.”

“In English please.” she replies in slight annoyance.

“I made her younger. In more detail, I manipulated her ‘Proof of Existence’, but all I can change is her age.”

“Oh, that would explain that.”

“I am the Ruler of the Night! Fear me!” early-teen-Nightmare Moon commands you in a squeaky voice as she tries to take a swipe at your shins. Thankfully, your arm is long enough to push her back. As the manifestation of herself if Luna had created her when she was simply a teen, her magical capacity also degrades to that of a regular Unicorn.

“I still don’t get the whole ‘the night will last forever’ thing by the way. I mean, technically half the planet will have ‘day’ forever since the moon can only shine on one side at a time.” you query, but nothing changes as the swipes still keep on coming.

Celestia, who came bursting out of the kitchen earlier when she heard shouting, prods at the little filly in amusement. Nightmare Moon simply takes an unsuccessful swipe at her.

“In all my centuries of living, I certainly never thought I’d see this happen at some point in time.” Celestia giggles as she keeps prodding.

“Is...is this what you had in mind?” Luna asks.

“Well, not exactly. I planned to have her reformed into good and get all that sense of vengeance out of her, but I didn’t think she’d try to exact revenge the moment she got free.”

“And the age regression?”

“Spur of the moment, but hey, it works.”

But the question does arise. What now?

Dinner, you suppose. It’s around that time anyway.

Everyone gets a Panini! And each one has a piece of fresh mutz in it.

Things would probably be much better if Nightmare started digging in instead of just scowling at the three of you from across the table.

Quite the awkward predicament you’re all in.

“Dear me, she’s acting like an actually whose parents didn’t let her out to play.” Celestia remarks.

You remain silent at the stare off, but you know Celestia isn’t exactly right on the money.

Sure, Nightmare might be acting more like an angsty teen because of the age regression, but she’s playing it smart.

She’ll be lynched if she ever sets foot in public unprotected, and she can’t support herself alone given her current situation. With the loss of a majority of her magical capabilities, her best choice right now is to stay here and plot her next move. Unfortunately for her, she can’t have a next move no matter how hard she plans. That’s probably why she looks like she just got woken up very early on a Saturday morning. Maybe she’s just trying to accept how things are? Well, if there’s one thing that you’re sure of it’s that she’s mad.

“Eat.” Luna commands.

“You cannot make me, you lonely blue horse!”

“I am a grown mare!”

Luna lifts Nightmare’s Panini in the blue glow of her magic, presumably to force feed her. You say presumably because you’ll never know what Luna was about to do since Nightmare flails her hooves, tossing the plate and launching the Panini into the air. You manage to catch the plate but the Panini has taken a sacrifice of martyrdom.

“You threw a piece of fresh mutz on the ground!” you point out, but before anything else is said or done, Nightmare Moon has already rushed out of the dining room.

“Why must we keep her again? She brings nothing but trouble.” Luna complains, quite annoyedly as well.

“Because we can’t exactly just leave her to die.” you point out, dematerializing the brave little Panini, “Rest well, my friend.”

“I for one think she’s amusing.” Celestia pipes up.

“You’re laughing at her though, not with her.”

“Fun is fun, Anonymous.” she beams the biggest smile you’ve ever seen her make since your time here.

You can kind of get how Celestia feels, one of her greatest nemeses for over a millennia reduced to a little powerless filly.

“If you’d like, I’ll take her in. I caused all this after all.”

“No no, Anonymous. She’s been my demon for the longest time and it is no different from her being in my head, as such, she is my responsibility. She will stay here, so long as she does not cause too much trouble in the castle.”

You have a feeling that she WILL cause too much trouble in the castle, but if she really will be too much to handle on both Luna and Celestia’s hooves then you’ll try to take her in. You sure hope Chrysalis doesn’t mind.

“I’ll go see her then.” you get up from your seat and start following Nightmare’s trail. The farther you go, the softer the princesses’ chatter with each other gets.

Looking around, you see a corner with a dark shade of shadows.

“Hey there.”

No answer, followed by a moment of silence, and then…

“...Why?”

You don’t reply, but she goes on.

“Why did you do this to me...?”

…

“How were things before this?”

““...”

“I know it wasn’t exactly great. A desolate and pitch-black void, with no one else but yourself. I know this isn’t exactly a better alternative for you and I’m sorry for that, but I know that if given the opportunity and time, you can live a normal life. Your rage is not yours, you were simply born with it, but you’re not born evil. I released you not just for Luna, but also for you. That’s about all I’ve got to say. I’d like to help you, but it’s your life. Do what you like with the rest of it. Whatever happens, it will get better.”

“Just leave...no, just do as you please. I am powerless now to do anything or command anypony. Now...all I have is darkness and corners…”

“You can add me to that list if you’d like, but hey, that’s only if you’d like.”

“I need not friends nor peers. That is how it’s always been.” she replies from the shadows.

You give her a smirk and simply just turn to walk away. In time, Anonymous, you’ll see what’s poppin’. It’s her choice after all.

“Well?” Luna asks just as you return.

“I think she just needs her own time for now. Anyway, any Saturday night plans?” you return to your seat.

“How about baking?” Celestia suggests, simply happy for having any semblance of free time.

“Pancakes?” you follow up.

“Breakfast for after-dinner snacks?!” Luna continues, her mood shifting instantly.

“Sounds like a plan.” you stand up and start to move towards the royal kitchen as the sisters follow with a skip in their gallops.

Now that’s a LOT of pancakes.

More than enough to feed Twilight on a hungry day.

“Did we overdo it?” you start to consider that maybe this was a bit much.

…

Nah, this is fine.

“Who cares! Shall we clean up before we start chomping these down?” Celestia replies.

“Agreed!” Luna chirps in reply as they both leave the kitchen.

Time to get the rest of the condiments then. Let’s see, honey, fruits- wait. Hmmm…

“Looks like someone’s a little too eager to eat.”

You turn around and catch Nightmare Moon prowling around with a generous stack of plain pancakes on a plate held around in her magic.

You negate her magic and hold the plate. Quickly, you pour honey all over it, heavily coat it with whipped cream and add some strawberries and blueberries on it before you hand it back to her.

“I suggest scurrying off before they come back.” you hand her a glass of mango juice before sending her off.

The only response you get from her is a confused look before she hastily leaves.

Shortly, Celestia and Luna come back and the three of you start digging in.

“That was fun.” you comment after devouring a spoonful of fluffy pancakes.

“Indeed. We should do this again sometime.” Celestia agrees, gobbling down a rather large chunk of pancakes. At least it’s not cake this time.

“So, any plans with Nightmare Moon then?”

Luna stops eating her pancakes, “We are not entirely certain yet. Perhaps we shall let her roam around the castle as she pleases very much like how me and sister spent our days as a filly.”

Celestia continues for her sister, “At her current state, I think it’s safe to say that she won’t be able to wreak havoc for quite a while. I doubt she’d leave the castle too if ever, so I agree in having her stay here for now. Forcing friendship and goodness onto her doesn’t sound like such a good idea either, so I suggest we plan what we’ll do next after she makes a move.”

“If that is all then I think I’ll be taking my leave now.” you stand up and pat yourself off of the little crumbs that have stuck to your clothes.

“I would be disheartened to see you leave, but if you must, then take these pancakes with you. It has been fun, Anonymous.” she hovers a rather large tupperware of pancakes over to you. Maybe you three really did make too much pancakes.

“I had fun as well, Anonymous.”

“Me too, but I gotta go. Maybe send Twilight another letter when you both have free time again.”

“We shall await the next time we can have a fun time together.” Celestia says with a wave of a hoof, as does Luna.

“Until then, I suppose.” you snap your fingers and appear in front of Nightmare Moon, who is in mid-chew of her pancakes.

Moving on is an essential part of living, but sometimes, it sure is nice to have a semblance of the past. A nice sentimental to give you nostalgic memories someday.

You settle down a nicely wrapped present on the floor in front of her, inside awaits a cute little plushie of Nightmare Moon’s previous form.

Time to go.

After another snap, you’re in your diner once more at 9 PM.

Chrysalis should be done with her shift for the day, and so you walk up the stairs, giving bartender Anon a wave before you do.

Now, the plan is simple…

From what you were told, Discord was reformed by Fluttershy, and he’s a pretty cool guy now. That means there’s a slight chance that you can do the same with Nightmare Moon. Should things go well, maybe Chryssy can finally come out as herself into the limelight. Someday...for sure, someday she can truly be free. The plan is simple. For now, all you can do is wait and hope.

“You’re back!” Chrysalis pops out from the bed and wraps her hooves around you.

You return the hug as you ruffle her mane, “Hey Chryssy, I brought late-night pancake snacks for you.”

You hand her the tupperware as you both take a seat at the bed. Happily, she digs through the stacks.

You boop her muzzle to slow down her enthusiasm. She blushes in response, and so you settle down the stack and decorate in flavorful add-ons. Same as Nightmare Moon’s, honey, strawberries and blueberries and lots of whipped cream.

Her eyes light up even more at the sight. You hand it over to her and run your fingers through her mane as she digs in.

This feels...wonderful. You could really use more times like these.

You notice hooves prodding at your arm. Looking over, you see that she’s offering you a share of her pancakes. You give her a happy smile and start digging in yourself.

It’s been quite a day. From age regressing a powerful Alicorn from history to eating pancakes with your best friend. Your smile grows wider as you imagine how things will get better soon.

The plan is simple (Part 2)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

The stray magician

You’re just a regular guy like everyone else. One of the main differences between you and them is how you’d just like to live a simple life, and no you’re not a serial killer obsessed with hands. Sadly, life won’t have it for you. That is, until you wake up in a forest one day in a land of magical pastel intelligent animals a couple weeks ago.

Now you’d think that living in a foreign world would make things complicated, but surprisingly it’s a lot more peaceful here than you’d first thought. Sure, there’s still the process of getting used to living here, but it was pretty much like Earth. Yes, life here is nice for you, despite the fact that you attained powers on par with Eldritch abominations.

You could manipulate reality for some reason when you’d gotten here but for you living simple was your cake and your newfound powers were just the icing on top. Even as a God you’d like to live simple.

Looking back now things went by pretty quickly when you’d arrived. You woke up in a forest and made your way out until you got attacked by a wooden wolf. It didn’t make sense to you at first but it was clearly hostile. It got the jump on you but as you raised your hand it burst into pieces. After a while of trying to understand what just happened, you discovered that you had powers, the power to manipulate reality. Scan an area, obtain knowledge you didn’t know before instantly, create things from the palm of your hand, you name it and it’s possible for you. It didn’t excite you to find that out, but you did like the idea. Soon after finding that out you’d decided to depart from the forest and find civilization.

As the trees started to diminish more and more, you’d found yourself by the outskirts of the forest running into a few strange creatures here and there. The first sign of civilization was a small village that you started to approach briskly. Once you got there everybody started flailing around and running away from you when one of them saw you and screamed in fear before you could even make first contact.

They appeared to be sapient pastel-colored horses of a kind, nothing too far from what you’d just discovered but still baffling nonetheless. Soon an armored group of them surrounded you and 6 regular ones with them saying something about coming with them to the princess. The pink one was vibrating in excitement, as in really really vibrating like she was glitching out. Seeing that they were sweating with worried faces on them, you still figured that they didn’t take you as hostile and were just being cautious since they haven’t attacked you yet. With no other plan in mind you complied and were taken into a silver chariot while the 6 were in another as some Pegasi flew you up. Everything you were seeing kept putting new amazements in your mind especially the sights during the trip, though you always keep a poker face and only break from it in emotional events such as parties, fights, and the like.

You arrived in a really large castle though it wasn’t exactly awe inspiring. You have to admit though, the interior was pretty well designed. The classical protocol happened right after. You got held waiting by two large doors, then they took you in minutes later only to find those six horses along with two bigger ones. One was a shade of midnight blue, you got a “down to earth” feeling from her which made you feel at ease. The other was a white one much bigger than the blue one. She had some rainbow flowing hair and gave off a very motherly vibe and aura from her smile alone. You could tell a meeting was about to start, so you enter the room and got near them and things were about to go down.

Quite some time had passed. Their fear subsided when they discovered you were sapient and pacifistic, apparently they felt the need to be cautious since you hadn’t said a word since arriving in the supposed throne room to which you realized you should’ve spoken up and asked questions, though you didn’t mind taking your time anyway. Mostly, they just wanted to discuss about you, you know, the usual. Your origins, your identity, the works.

You told them all you knew at the time, that your name was Anonymous and they could call you Anon for short and that you came from a different place. You also decided to tell them of your divine powers considering probably no one could stop you. Their fear once more grew when you made a spectacle of the capacity of your power. They explained to you though of a fellow named “Discord” and how you reminded them of him, they must’ve feared you’d turn out like him. You once more felt the need to explain to them how you wouldn’t go on a rampage and ravage their world, thankfully, their sweat and fear in their eyes simmered down even if just a bit.

The rest of the time was just them explaining to you about their world and history, it was pretty interesting and insightful though. By the end was just a deeper form of introductions where you got to personally know each one. To your surprise, they were actually ponies and not horses, you couldn’t help but feel a bit flustered when they’d corrected you, but you payed it no mind.

The largest one was an Alicorn named Celestia, the co-ruler of their land, Equestria. The second largest one coated in midnight blue was Luna, the protector of the subconscious realm of dreams. She was also an Alicorn and the other co-ruler of Equestria. There was only one other Alicorn in the room but she was just around the size of a regular pony, her name was Twilight Sparkle and you’d find out that all Alicorns are princesses here. A Bourgeois-like one with a white coat and a rather pleasant accent was named Rarity, a unicorn and a seamstress. You never really liked the stereotypical Bourgeois, but you’ll give this one a chance. The hyperactive pink one was named Pinkie Pie, might’ve guessed that. She’s a baker. You always loved baking, it always put you at ease so you got a good feeling from her. The Southern orange one with blonde hair and a cowboy hat was named Applejack, she’s a farmer. The chill blue one with rainbow hair was, as you’d know it, Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. And lastly, a yellow pony with pink hair that’s a real tug on the heartstrings, Fluttershy. She takes care of animals, she’s quite the shy one considering she won’t look you straight in the eye, as if you are some god that should not be looked upon directly, and only between her strands of flowing hair instead.

A few weeks had already gone by and the whole time you were learning more about them to fit in. Now you know about just as much as they do about their race. Lately, when Rarity found out about how you wanted to just live a simple life, she’d bought you an area in her town, Ponyville, and had a diner built there. She said she’d already had it in mind way back when but couldn’t find the right pony to man it, and considering you were new and you mentioned how you wanted a simple life, she offered it to you as a welcoming gift. You loved working a diner, the idea was pretty fun and simple for you and it might help ponies to warm up to you. Your presence was still a surprise to most creatures in this world but most folks in Ponyville already know of you, they just haven’t broke out of their shell and try to befriend you on a personal level. Usually, it’s just a wave and a hoot and a holler of courtesy, but they’re still about as shy as Fluttershy. You don’t mind though, you decided to just give it some time. Rarity also said that she made the diner near her boutique as a business thing where she can get customers from the diner, but for more refined taste, she opens the place as a bar after 7 PM. She wanted to make it a bar only but decided to mix it up when you suggested to make it a diner at day so everyone can come in. She gladly agreed that the suggestion was ingenious and implemented it. Now you’re just happy to work as a diner manager and a bartender. Entering the diner/bar, a closed small bar is to your right and a counter next to it all the way to the wall is for the diner. Everything behind that is just the kitchen and to the front of you is the usual seats for the people to dine in. At night, everything closes and the bar lights up. That’s mostly what you wait for everyday. The day job is nice and you love it, but things get more interesting at night.

You mostly love the work of a bartender for many reasons, one of which was being able to console people who come by that are problematic, and even more so now that you can manipulate reality. Most people still don’t know about that except for the princesses and the other 5 ponies. Speaking of consoling customers, a rather depressed blue pony is walking in the bar right now. She wears a wizard hat and cape and has an aesthetic white mane. You break off your reminiscent haze as she opens the door which rings the bell. You look at the time, it’s 8:53 PM and your only customer is the one that’s about to enter. You start wiping the counter as she takes her seat.

“What’ll you have, miss?”

“O-oh, I’m sorry, i-it’s... I’ll just have some water.” she says in a really somber tone. You can feel as if she wants to say something, to vent and let out a bit of steam. She also froze up a bit seeing you for the first time, but she simmered down a bit after. You supposed that she’s seen many other creatures besides ponies and probably word of who you are already spread through Ponyville, and maybe even Equestria.

You let out some water and a glass and pour her one, “Rough day?” you ask worriedly.

“You mean everyday?” She chuckles to her zinger a bit as she smiles briefly only to return to her former expression, you still chuckled yourself to her quip though.

“Ah, yes. The agonies of living. So what made your day so rough, miss...?”

“Trixie. Trixie Lulamoon.”

“THE Trixie Lulamoon.” you asked baffled. You never really knew a lot of people, everyday was just job in, job out, rest, then repeat. Either way, you always found a certain charm about meeting considerably famous figures even when you don’t have any kind of affinity with them or what they do.

“The great and powerful.” She quips and smiles once more but only for a short while as she looks down at her glass.

“Work, I suppose?”

“Yup.” She admits with a heavy sigh as her eyes start to glisten. “It’s just that-“ her explanation was cut off by her rumbly tummy. The water works are on now. She’s whimpering in shame while still trying to wipe her tears away. “I-I-I’ve b-been working on m-m-magic for so long but less and l-less ponies each day come to see my shows.” Trixie gulps hard as her tears keep a stagnant flow. “N-Now I don’t have enough bits to even get a meal and my wagon is full so I don’t have a place to stay.” She bawls our even louder after that last statement.

Luckily, it’s just the two of you in the diner right now and there’s no one close enough outside to hear her. You barely know her but you can’t help but feel really bad just seeing her in that sorry state. Thankfully, Rarity told you before you opened the diner that every restocking of supplies, there’s always a little extra in the food portion so that when the homeless or needy are nearby we can cook some up for them, else you can have them for mealtimes during your break.

Without a second thought, you freeze time in all of Equestria and Trixie except for the diner. It’s not that you couldn’t stand how loud she was, it’s just that you didn’t want to keep her waiting for the meal you’re about to make her. Behind the counter to your right is a grill, most of the ingredients and other kitchen apparatus are in the back. In a jiffy you get some enoki mushrooms, two eggs, a couple leeks, a few dashes of salt, and flour. It’s a simple meal, but it tastes pretty good and it doesn’t have any meat in it. (Authors note: this is a real meal you can make. It’s really simple to make. Just mix it all and cook it in a pan so try it if you’d like.). You place them all into smaller pieces on the grill and in a few minutes it’s cooked to perfection. You place them all in a plate and get some cider for Trixie. Hastily, you placed her meal in front of her as you wipe a bit of sweat off your face using your sleeve. All is ready now, so you unfreeze time. The shift from utter silence to loud wailing instantly pierced my ears and deafened me for quite a bit. I cover my ears for a bit until Trixie simmered down when she’d realized that something just appeared in front of her. She’s a little calm now, but still sniffling. Taking notice of you cupping my ears, she apologizes, “S-Sorry... u-um, what’s going on?”.

Oh boy, here you go again. Whether you want to keep your powers a secret from her or not isn’t a problem. You don’t really care much for what people know about you but you have to tell her regardless considering she’s already a tad confused.

Minutes have passed as you’ve told Trixie of your origins in Equestria and your divine powers. Trixie seemed to take it normally and she wasn’t in shock and awe, she said that she already knew someone like you and that his name was Discord. Sounds like an interesting fellow, you think that you’d like to meet him someday somehow. You’re lost in thought about Discord so Trixie speaks up to break your haze while she takes in another spoon of your warm meal with her magic, “So like, how great and powerful are you?”

“Well...” you say with a little smirk on your face while you snap your fingers.

Just like that, you and Trixie are in Canterlot inside the castle. It would all be normal if it wasn’t broken down. Trixie is confused as to what’s happening. She has a bad feeling about what’s happened judging simply by how the castle is. She looks out the balcony and her fear tremendously increases. Everywhere she looks everything is destroyed. Not a single soul to be seen or heard and all of Equestria is gone in the snap of a finger. Seeing the true fear in her eyes, you snap your fingers again and you’re back in the diner. She’s hyperventilating. You pour her another glass of water but she instead runs for the door to look outside. All is well in Ponyville. She goes back to her seat and drinks her glass just before asking, “What in the Tartarus was that?!”

“Whoa, relax. That was just a vision of what I could do, it never really happened.”

“I-I see.”

“Look, I’m not a bad guy. I’d just like to live a simple life. I’d never destroy Equestria.”

Trixie feels herself calm down at that and huff a big breath she’d been holding in almost as if a heavy weight had just been taken away from her shoulders.

A silence build between us and you step in to break it. “So... how’s my cooking?”

Trixie feels herself blush lightly at that statement. She’d already forgotten the ordeal that you helped her out of and is now flustered at the thought of not showing her gratitude the moment you’d helped her.

“Th-They’re really good.”

You never really liked answers like that. Always so generic. Nevertheless you respect them as a basic act of courtesy so you give a basic nod, “aye, that’s good to hear.”

“How’d you make them?” Trixie inquires with a puzzled look on her face.

“Well, after I stopped time I just got some leeks, enoki mushrooms, salt, flour, and two eggs and then grilled them right after mixing them.”

“Wait, why did you stop time?”

You like the thought that she’s already gotten used to your divine powers so you crack a smile and say, “Well I wouldn’t want to keep a hungry mare waiting.”

She blushes at that real hard as she looks away. You couldn’t help but return the favor and blush yourself without changing expression.

“Thank you, uhhh...”

“Anonymous, you can call me Anon for short.”

“Right, sorry. I probably should’ve asked earlier.” Trixie shyly mutters as she scratches the back of her head with a hoof. “Anyhoo, I’m really grateful Anon, truly. The truth is, I went here because it was cold outside, I wasn’t even sure if you’d let me stay. Now I’m just grateful. I’ve got a warm meal, and I’m not freezing. That’s more than enough for me, so thank you Anon.

She leans in and gives you a warm embrace from across the counter. You return it and after a few awkward seconds she lets go with her cheeks as red as tomatoes. “I-It’s been quite the night but I’ve gotta go. I hope we see each other again. Good night Anon.”

“Good night, Trixie.” you warmly say despite your schemes that are about to unfold. It’s cold out and she doesn’t have a place to sleep so you can’t just let her leave. There’s no two ways about it, you have to make her stay.

As she’s heading for the door, she suddenly shifts a few meters back. Thinking that it’s just her mind playing tricks on her, she moves once more like nothing happened. It happened again, but she catches on quick as she gives you a pouty glare. “Anooon.”

“Yes?”

“I have to go.”

“Go where? Home?”

Trixie recoils at your question. She has a home, her wagon, it’s just full and she can’t sleep there. She can’t answer your question because she knows she’ll have to sleep outside, she just said she’d leave and she’d just work her way from there. She’d very much like to stay with you, but she doesn’t want to trouble you.

“You know you can stay here even if it’s just for the night, right?”

“No no, I wouldn’t want to bother you.”

“Me? Bothered?” you deadpanned at her. As much as you wanted a simple life, you didn’t really mind any other icing on your cake as long as you weren’t heavily affected. When Rarity was having the diner constructed, you were living with Pinkie Pie because she was extremely hospitable and you loved baking. You had a blast there and felt really bad when you had to leave though because your stay was only temporary, though you still go to Sugarcube Corner every now and then to hang out with Pinkie. Rarity just built a diner for you and was beaming with joy when she got to show it to you. You asked if you could live there and she was perplexed as to why. She told you how it might be uncomfortable for you to sleep in a diner and referred to it as “simply horrid”. In a snap of a finger a second floor is made on the diner. Rarity seemed pretty peeved at you at the time when she realized that you could’ve made the diner yourself instead of her having to go through the trouble of paperwork and bits, but at the end of the day it was goodwill so she didn’t mind and you both had a laugh about it, but those occasional glares that she gives you behind your back don’t seem to agree.

“Well I actually live here and I’m sure Rarity won’t mind me having someone over.”

Trixie seems to have no problem with that as her look changes from dismissive to neutral, and then flustered. “Me sleeping in the same roof with someone else?”

You didn’t really think things through when you asked her to stay the night. You’d only realized just then that she probably hasn’t slept in the same place with someone for ages since she sleeps alone in her wagon.

“I-I mean, it’s better here than on the streets.” you hastily uttered defensively.

“I suppose so.” Trixie whispers in agreement. “But it’s still pretty early, what should we do?”

“Well, how about we brush up your act?” you gleefully suggest with a smile on your face as you summon a pack of cards shuffling between your hands.

“Sounds like a plan.”

It’s been about an hour two and it’s nearly 11 PM now. You’ve been teaching Trixie some neat magic tricks since then and sometimes even went as far as going to a simulation dimension just to practice some grander ones like the ones that involve cannons. A smaller half of the time you tried to teach her how to cook seeing as that she was interested in it. Alas, to no avail. She was determined at first but she kept getting distracted and bored along the way. She said that she would instead just Master her craft first instead of learning new ones. Before learning, she told me that crowds were hard to please in Equestria considering that magic was just an everyday thing already. You on the other hand weren’t well versed in magic, but you are quite the creative one. A couple card and stage tricks here and there and she was already amazed at what you’d shown her, that was a good sign that people will enjoy the magic she’ll soon perform especially considering that she learned pretty quickly. The most promising thing she learned from you though was her stage act. It wasn’t just about amazing her audience, it was also about keeping them entertained and connecting with them. She had mixed feelings when she realized that. Happy that she’s learned it and sad that she hadn’t realized it as much before.

Minutes later, you were teaching her a new trick where she’d be shot out of a cannon and slam straight into a wall only to vanish out of nowhere right as she’s about to hit the wall. While you’re loading her up in the cannon and telling her the ins and outs, a bell can be heard from the portal. Almost instantly you snap your fingers once more and you and Trixie are back at the diner. With your eyes closed you inform, “Good evening. Welcome to the bar, what would you like?”

A regal voice can be heard, “Darling, you really should give this place a name. You can’t just call it ‘the diner’ and ‘the bar’.”

Yes, the establishment was technically yours but also Rarity’s at the same time yet she still gave you the honors of naming it. Whether it’s due to simplicity or laziness, you just called it ‘the diner’ at day and ‘the bar’ at night when it opens. “I can and will, Rarity.” you humor with a smug look on your face.

Rarity just glares at you and ends with a sigh, “To each their own I suppose, but you ‘will’ change that name someday. I’m sure.”

“Well, someday is not today.” you quip back as you pour her some well-brewed tea, it’s quite a delicious homemade recipe you know of.

“Oh Anon, you’re such a gentleman. Thank you dearly. That’s just what I need right now.” Rarity praises as she uses her magic to take a sip and melts her stress away with its flavor.

“Speaking of need, what brings you here so late at night?”

Abruptly finishing her sip, Rarity quickly remembers, “ah yes. I’d just finished my workload for the night and I wanted to check up on how you were doing. I know how slow nights can get.” Rarity catches a glimpse of Trixie and the magic trick stuff you two used on a nearby table, there’s quite a lot of them on it. “Though it looks like you already have company. Good evening, Trixie.”

“Hey. Sorry if I’m intruding on anything here, Rarity.”

“Oh, worry not darling. That’s up to Anon and I’m certain that he’s alright with it.”

“Indeed I do.” you follow up.

“Anyhoo, I don’t suppose things have gotten too boring here now, have they?”

“Well, the night was slow and the only one who’s been here since the bar opened was Trixie. Though we’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve been teaching her new tricks for her next performance.”

“Why that’s great news darling! It’s good to know you’re doing well with other ponies. I hope that stage performance will be simply divine now.” Rarity glees in excitement.

“Why wouldn’t it be? I, after all, am the ‘great’ and ‘powerful’ Trixie.” Trixie pridefully announces with a smug look on her face as Rarity just rolls her eyes at what she just said.

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind Rarity, but I made some food for Trixie. She was pretty hungry.” you shyly mention.

“Oh pish posh, think nothing of it darling. I already told you we save some extra stock for a reason,” Rarity then looks back again at the magic trick equipment. “Though it looks like it’s still a long night for both of you. Until when might you be here, Trixie?”

“Actually, I’m staying the night. Thankfully, Anon doesn’t mind.”

“I’m honored, actually.” you playfully joke around winning you a blush from Rarity and Trixie.”

“My word, Anon. I had no idea you’d gotten so... chummy with ponies this quick.” Rarity clamors in astonishment.

“Haha, it’s nothing like that.” you reassure with your facial expression turning from casual to stern.

A few awkward moments of silence later, Rarity speaks up after finishing her cup of tea awkwardly, “Well then darling, I wouldn’t want to keep you two from your business now.”

You glare at Rarity only to get a wink from her back.

“Thanks again dearie, keep up the good work and good luck. Good night to you and Trixie as well.”

“Yeah, sweet dreams too Rarity.” you say with an exhausted tone.

It’s half past 11 PM now as you look at the wall clock and you let out a heavy sigh just as Rarity left. Trixie is yawning now. “It’s getting pretty late huh? I’m fairly sure I’ve taught you enough for your next show so why don’t you go to bed?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Trixie tiredly mutters while rubbing her eyes with a hoof.

The two of you walk upstairs to the second floor and into your house. Upon entering, you turn on the lights, “Welcome to my domain.”

It’s not the coziest of places, but it’s your home. There’s barely any aesthetic design to the place and it’s pretty plain. Beige wallpaper, necessary furniture, and the occasional anime posters here and there, some of which are Hatsune Miku. It’s not much, but it’s just the way you like it.

“What are these posters on the wall? I’ve never seen anything like them.”

“That’s a tale for another time. C’mon, let’s get you to your room. I’ve still got to finish my shift.”

“You’re not gonna go to bed with me?”. Upon realizing her ‘mistake’ she corrects it. “I-I-I-I mean at the same time... yup... that’s what I meant.”

“Well, a job’s a job.”

You just realized that you don’t have a guest room in your house. The occasion in your thought where that would happen was extremely rare and was thus unnecessary, so you’d never thought about making one. Not a problem though, with a snap of a finger the place is made. You enter the just made room with Trixie and she’s baffled speechless. The room is much grander than anything else in the house and probably even in most parts of Equestria. It’s got a big bed with those curtains on it, a grand balcony, fuzzy floor mats, the works. Most of what was shocking was that the room was colored in Trixie’s color palette and the design was hers as well.

Her shock turns into yet another blush as she asks, “Was this room always here?”

“Nope, just made it.”

Trixie lets out a little sigh and a snicker as she climbs the bed. “Alright. It’s been quite the night, Anon, but Trixie needs her beauty sleep. And thanks... for everything.”

“Think nothing of it.” you whisper as you teleport to her and tuck her in.

Trixie smiles at that gesture, “Goodnight, Anon.”

“Sleep well, Trixie.”

You leave her room and off the lights as you are now descending downstairs. You’re back at the bar now and waiting for your shift to end as you just think about the night that just came to be. You are also excited for the days that will be.

Author's Note

We’re just starting up here on Chapter 1. More fun stuff planned already coming soon. Have a good day everyone.

A regal and rumpus babysitting hangout

The night before went pretty smoothly. No one went in after Rarity left and it was a quiet night of wiping the counter and fixing up the place. You assumed that you’ll need to simmer down and be in Ponyville a little while longer until ponies start bustling in your diner/bar after they’ve heard of it long enough. As said, the bar opens at 7 PM and closes at 2 AM because you figured that ponies should get some rest for the coming day and so that you yourself can get some as well, not that you need it or anything, because you really don’t. You could go on working forever but you’d prefer to take the occasional rest to sleep and have time for yourself. Sleep’s always be good whether you’re tired or not.

It’s 5:55 AM sharp and you rise just as the sun is about to. There’s very few things needed to prep up the diner for the morning so you get up minutes before it opens. There’s nothing much that you do in the morning, just the occasional fixing of the bed after getting up, drinking coffee, then flipping of the “open” sign. You sneaked your way through to the 1st floor as to make sure that Trixie doesn’t wake up. You know she’s tired, so you let her sleep in for as long as she needs.

It’s exactly 6:00 AM and you just set a delicious treat that you made a little while ago on the table for the mare that’s about to eat it as part of the morning routine. It’s some blueberry pancakes with a lot of whipped cream and some orange juice on the side. The morning routine is now done and as you flip the sign to “OPEN” with its flashy neon lights, a pink ball of haze comes bursting in the diner quicker than most people can see but slow enough to notice it. It’s Pinkie Pie again. She’s been coming by almost every morning to get some breakfast here and mostly to be with you since you moved out from Sugarcube Corner. She’s a clingy one, but it puts a smile on your face when she’s around. Occasionally, you two hang out and you just put a sentient clone of yourself in the diner to run things while you’re gone so Rarity won’t get mad at you for skipping your work. The clone is just like another you, but he’ll never turn evil. Sometimes you even talk to him about your own thoughts, it’s pretty cool that way.

“Good morning, Anon.” she cheers with evident excitement in her voice as she sits herself on the diner stool near the counter. She’s a little extra giddy giddy today, considering she looks like she’s about to explode from the joy she’s containing.

“You’re about half a second early today, Pinkie. Something I should know besides making your breakfast?” you ponder out loud.

“Weeeeell, the Cakes told me that I should just take care of their foals today and Twilight’s also taking care of Flurry Heart today too. So I was just wondering if you wanna join us in our ‘Pinkie and Twilight babysitting Flurry Heart and the Cake twins’ hangout!” she shouts loudly in excitement as she ends her statement with an adorable squee.

You couldn’t really disagree. It was a fairly swell relationship between you and the Cake twins. They liked you and you liked them, it was simple as that. You enjoyed Pinkie’s presence too and you wanted to meet Flurry Heart for the first time. The only plausible problem you can think of is how Twilight will bombard you with questions again, but you’ll just find your way around that when you get there. You’re bound to meet Twilight one way or another eventually and she’s not really a bad pony, just a tad too inquisitive.

“Sure, I’ve got time.”

“Hehehe, you always do Anon.” Pinkie jokingly quips as she gives you yet another grin.

Remembering about Trixie, you decide to work a bit before joining Pinkie and Twilight just until Trixie wakes up and leaves. “Alright, I’ll just work a bit then I’ll join you two. Where will you be at?”

“You’ll see us at the park. It’ll happen in a few hours so we’ll be waiting for you there.”

“Not if I get there first.” you get a smirk on your face as Pinkie returns one to you as well.

“Welp, I better let you get back to work. I gotta go prepare the stuff for the hangout too.”

“Better get some breakfast first. Can’t work without the energy and these pancakes will give you just that.” you say with a wide smile and your hands showcasing her breakfast.

Pinkie is already at the diner door with her back to you and she vibrates a bit almost as if glitching out for about a millisecond.

“I just did.” Pinkie condescends while giving you an extremely smug grin as she looks back at you.

You look back at her plate and see that her plate is empty with a little crumbs here and there. It’s mostly gone except for the orange juice. There’s also a couple bits on the table. The meals here were cheaper for Pinkie because she’s your and Rarity’s friend, but she’s always so nice with her parties that you always make sure to pay her back with extra whenever you two get a chance to hangout or just whenever.

“Well played, Pinkie. Though it looks like you forgot your oran-“ you decide not to finish your sentence. Something is definitely awry. Looking back from Pinkie to the glass, it’s empty as well.

“Very. Well played.” you slowly say giving her an approving smile while she’s leaving the diner.

One of the main reasons you like Pinkie is because she’s one of the only ponies that can get on your level in pretty much everything. Though it’s time to setup shop rather than think about how you feel about your friends. As you’re revving up those friers, the customers start coming in for their dose of energy. The daily grind is about to begin.

“See you later, Dashinator.”

“Well then you better catch on, Anon.” Rainbow Dash plays around rhymes just as you did.

It’s been a while now and the last customer in the diner is Rainbow Dash. She’s about to leave for her Wonderbolts training and just stopped by to get some breakfast. She comes here from time to time mostly because your food is considerably cheap yet still gives off more energy than your average meal. You’d like to think it’s got something to do with your culinary skills but it’s also probably because it’s recipes from Earth. Mostly besides eating, she stays here to talk about her really radical stories, usually in her training, life, or even just Daring Do. As simple as you are, you’re pretty up for pranks and adventures at times, and that’s mostly why Rainbow Dash likes talking with you about those things. Mostly because you can relate with her and she can relate with you that way.

She was really thankful for her breakfast this morning, as usual, for how “awesome” it tastes. She just gave you a goodbye gesture with her wings and a little smile to top it off. She’s out the door now and has flown to Cloudsdale. With a joyous smile on your face from your encounter with Rainbow Dash, you start cleaning up the place.

Ponies usually get up as early as the sun does. It’s pretty early for you but you always have the energy to get up. Not Trixie today though, she just got down from the stairs rubbing her eyes while you’re finishing up on your cleaning by wiping the counters.

It’s 8:36 AM. Looking around Trixie spots you tiredly but gradually getting more awake.

“You’re up early.” you playfully say with clear sarcasm in your tone of voice, though considerably speaking it really is pretty early.

“Well, I told you, the great and powerful Trixie needs her beauty sleep.” she shoots back showcasing her form.

You chuckle at that response while setting down a plate of breakfast for her. It’s the same as Pinkie’s, but it’s a strawberry pancake instead. Trixie’s eyes are enlarged and locked on the plate. She’s ogling at it and the sounds that her stomach just made pretty much says it all.

She giggles embarrassed while she takes her seat and starts digging in after thanking you once more. “How come there’s no pony here today?” she muffles between chews.

“Well, the ponies usually arrive here early in the morning and come back at lunch. There’s rarely anyone that eats late or between meals, but it does happen at times.”

“Well, that makes sense.”

You’d like to stay and chat, but you’ve got to go meet Pinkie Pie and Twilight.

“Well, I’ve got to go. See you soon, Trixie.” you hastily say while putting on your suit and tie.

“Where you going?” Trixie asks curiously while swallowing a bite of her pancake.

“I gotta meet Pinkie and Twilight for a double babysit.”

Trixie heavily frowns at hearing the name Twilight, but regains her composure moments later. “Well, have fun then Anon. I’ll see myself out when I’m done.”

“Great, just leave the plate there when you’re done and I’ll take care of it. If you’re bored or anything happens just talk to me.”

“What do you mea-“ she asks with a raised brow only to have her heart rate massively increase when she saw a second Anon in front of her behind the counter wearing his work clothes ready to continue the job the real Anon is leaving him.

Trixie is calming herself down while you just look back at her from the diner door and give her a wink. “Goodbye, Trixie. See you later, me.”

“You got it, me. I’ll keep things up and running in case anyone comes by while you’re gone.” your sentient clone reassures while you’re already out the door and heading for the park.

It doesn’t take a while for you to get to the park. You see Pinkie smiling and waving at you from a mile away and Twilight is there excitedly moving around in place clearly from her anticipation of asking you questions. You let out a heavy sigh as you nearly got there.

Before any form of introductions from anyone, Twilight has already started her inquisitive onslaught on you, an inquisitive onslaught so grave and boring that I, the author, will not bother to put any specific questions in mind.

There it is, yet another heavy sigh from you. You just decided to make your fingers extra sticky and stick all five of them from your right hand on her coat.

Twilight stops and flinches a bit at that gesture and looks at you in curiosity. “Wow Anon, looks like you’ve got some pretty sticky fingers. Is that a human thing too?”

Hearing what she’d just said, you can’t help but laugh a bit. “Hehe, sticky fingers. Exactly.” you then proceed to pinch the tip of her mouth and zip it all the way to the other as a zipper is magically formed on her muzzle. She starts saying things in a muffled manner and looks a tad distressed. You don’t like doing this to her, but she’s not asking questions and she’s not hurt so it’s fine. Plus that’s a real side splitter of a reference you just made.

You then turn to Pinkie to ask her about the day. “So what’re we gonna do today?”

Pinkie just looks at Twilight and acts as though everything is alright. “I thought since it’s your first time with Flurry Heart and it’s your break time, you can decide what to do today.”

“Hmmm... fair enough I suppose.”

Twilight looks like she wants to say something, so you unzip her mouth and remove the zipper. “Had enough yet?”

Twilight breaths a bit and says, “Actually, if I could just ask a really really small amount of ques-“ and before she can finish the zipper is back on. You take it off moments later.

“No questions for now, today’s about the Cakes and Flurry Heart. Alright?”

Twilight sighs in defeat, drooping down her ears and looks to the ground. “...alright.”

The zipper is now gone from existence and you try to cheer Twilight up a little. “Hey now, I might tell you just a bit soon if not later.”

Twilight brightens up from that. “Really?”

“As the world binds me to this realm, really.”

Twilight squees in joy and jumps around a bit. You know she’s been waiting weeks just to ask you questions and you’ve been busy so neither of you had the time to meet up. You’d really like to sate her curiosity but you know her questions may never end if you do, so you try your best to avoid that. Nevertheless, you’ll do it someday but today isn’t about either of you so it’s best to leave those for another time.

“So you wanted to say something earlier, Twilight?” Pinkie comes in and tries to keep the happy momentum going.

“Oh, right. I actually made a schedule for today and...” everything after that was just muffled white noise to you as it was not only boring but it was also long. It’s one of those speeches from her again. You wanna spice things up today and keep it interesting so you grab the notebook her schedule was in and teleport it back at her castle only for it to land on Spike leaving him to thud on the floor.

Twilight just gives you a questioning glare of worry. “Anon, why? We need a schedule for the day to be perfect.”

“Flash news, purple smart. Nothing’s perfect. We’ll have more fun when things are spontaneous, trust me.” you defensively reassure Twilight.

Twilight isn’t exactly the closest of friends with you, but you are friends and you being friends with her friends reassures her of how good your moral character is. So with that in mind, she trusts you but still gives a pouty look to the ground. It’s pretty cute but you hate melancholy in the air, so you give her a little trade.

“Ah, I’ll buy it at a high price.” you give a little change of tone to simmer down the bad vibes.

“Buy what?” Pinkie asks.

“Twilight’s smile of course.” Twilight looks back up at you with a raised brow. “Alright Twilight, no schedule equals me give you knowledge about me today.”

Twilight perks up at that once more. “Well what are we waiting for? Lead the way, Anon.”

“Alright let’s go.”

“Operation ‘Pinkie and Twilight babysitting Flurry Heart and the Cake twins’, commence.” Pinkie lightly shouts pointing a hoof to the sky.

Passing by the strollers, you’d already forgotten to see the little foals after meeting with Pinkie and Twilight. You peer in both at the same time and see thee Cake twins in their strollers an Flurry Heart in hers, they’re all sounds asleep. They look really adorable as some of them are fidgeting at even the slightest of sounds.

Seeing this, you look back at Twilight and Pinkie as you put a finger to your lips. “Let’s just take a quiet stroll for now.” you whisper.

They both nod in agreement. The park is relatively quiet and the little foals are still snoring. Thankfully, they still are despite the loud noises you three made earlier.

Strolling now, Pinkie quietly whispered to you the most bizarre of parties she’s ever thrown, one of which was Rainbow Dash’s birthday party. Twilight tried to not be awkward by joining the conversation and backing Pinkie up and telling a couple tales of her own such as the times that they saved Equestria. She’d even explained to you about a race called the “Changelings” and how you should only avoid one named Chrysalis. She said they’d all turned good except for her so I should keep a sharp guard on. You keep the conversation topic parallel by telling them the fictional times of when Earth was in danger and that superheroes and special people saved the day. It was quite the chat until it died down slowly.

Twilight breaks up the awkward silence to satisfy the undying beast within her, her curiosity. “So Anon, about our little deal.” her eyes are glittering now as they go wide eyed looking at you.

Well she had to ask eventually, and you’re a man of your word. You kneel down to get on her level and give her a little tap on the forehead. With that, every bit of knowledge that you know comes flooding into her mind. She’s laying on the floor now twitching almost as if she’s having a seizure.

“Is she alright?” Pinkie asks concerned.

“We won’t be.” you say with a really worried face, you know what’s to come in mere moments.

You put on a defensive stance as Twilight starts getting up with an amazed look on her face. She’s about to ask questions again when you specifically told her not to. Though, it is true that answers always lead to more questions. So you put on your sticky fingers again, zip her mouth, and then take back all the knowledge you’d just given her all in the time of 0.01 seconds.

Twilight looks really somber right now. Her glistening eyes are staring right into yours as she gives you a questioning look of despair again.

Welp, you’re a sucker for that kind of thing. You give her back the knowledge with the tap of a finger to her forehead but instead of information about everything on humanity, it’s just everything about you on a factual level and about what you know since you arrived in Equestria.

She doesn’t look content, but is pleased enough to be beaming. Removing the zipper she gives you a wide smile and you return it. Before anything is said, the three of you hear the sounds of children making noise of all sorts. You’d been walking in circles with them for a while now as a nice morning stroll, but the commotion that happened between you and Twilight made you break out of that patrol and start walking in a straight line and ended up near the school. With the noise in mind, the little foals wake up yawning. It was considerably noisy, but not enough to startle the three little foals.

Every thought and vibe before that moments dies out and is forgotten as cute giggling sounds come from the carriage.

“Hey there, little guys.” you coo harmonically while the three of them smile and chuckle reaching out to you. In a swift but careful manner, you pick the three of them up and pull them close to you, Pinkie, and Twilight.

“Awww, they look so cute together.” Pinkie remarks while Flurry Heart starts latching on her head. You let go of Flurry Heart as Pinkie blows into her stomach getting even more adorable giggles from her. I laugh and smile at the heartwarming display and and a flash of light is seen at the same time. Twilight just took a picture of the 5 of you with the camera she had packed for the day and it’s quite the spectacle, one you’d like to remember for as long as you can.

Twilight hands you the picture with her magic. “Here Anon, I think you should keep this. So you’ll have something to remember this by.”. Twilight’s eyes are glistening a bit and her waterworks are about to turn on. You know what she means. She’s one of the only ponies here that aren’t oblivious to the fact that you’re pretty much immortal and will eventually outlive them. She and you just keep it under wraps as to not ruin any good mood at any time. You can’t mess with their lifespan either, it wouldn’t be right. In time, they’ll be gone and she wants you to keep this picture so when the times comes, you’ll have something to remember them by.

Your mortality and theirs is a discussion you don’t want to bring up ever unless absolutely necessary, so you cup Twilight’s cheek and wipe her tears away. “Thanks Twilight, but I’m still here and so is everyone else.”

Her waterworks are finally on and so is Pinkie’s, who’s crying because of the somber mood in the air. You pull all of them in for a group hug and the babies are also caressing them by the head in the hopes of making them feel better.

A little later they feel all better and their tears have dried up as they disperse from your hug. While they’re still recovering, you make 4 copies of the picture. One for Pinkie, another for Twilight, one more for Flurry Heart and the last one for the Cake twins. “Here Twilight, I think you all should have one too.”

Before anyone can say or do anything, Pinkie stuffs all four of them in her mane. Twilight was about to ask for hers and Flurry Heart’s when Pinkie speaks up, “You’ll all find them later.”

Twilight looks at you while you just shrug at her. She just rolls her eyes at Pinkie’s statement and just decides to be patient, after all, Pinkie is a mare of her words.

Breaking from the immersion of the moment, the sound of kids playing around fill your ears once more. You get an idea from that.

“Hey, gals.” you try to get their attention.

“Hmm?” Twilight questions.

“Wanna visit the school?”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Pinkie shouts as she bursts into the air in glee.

The little foals just gurgle in agreement and you just look at the direction of the school with a smile, “Here we go then.”

After placing back the babies in their strollers, all of you head to the school. It didn’t take long for all of you to get to its gate. Swinging it open, it makes a loud creaking sound which gets the attention of all of the ponies playing in the yard. Seeing the lot of you, they start running towards your direction.They run even faster after seeing the strollers and the babies you’re bringing with you. They’re swarming around all of you now mostly just either asking questions or giving compliments and appraisals. The others that are closer to the strollers keep talking about how cute Flurry Heart and the Cake twins are. Now Twilight can’t even move as they pin her into one spot and keep asking her about her “Princess” stuff. You smirk at the idea of how the tables have turned on Twilight and she’s the one being bombarded with questions now.

“Don’t feel so good now, do it?”

“No! No it doesn’t!” Twilight screeches in the hopes of breaking away from the crowd.

You just chuckle and shake your head as you teleport away from the crowd. They’re all too focused on Twilight and the babies to notice your escape. Pinkie is just enjoying the moment by crowd surfing and entertaining the little kids. You give the little moving tableau one last smile before looking the other way. You see a magenta-colored pony near the school snickering as she’s looking your way. She must be Cheerilee. You’ve heard stories about her from Pinkie Pie before but you’d never formally met her yet.

You decide to have your gang do their thing and break from the crowd on their own as you briskly approach Cheerilee. She sees you walking up to her and decides to move closer to you as well.

You’re in point-blank range from her and she courteously starts the conversation. “Hi there, you must be Anon.”

“And you must be Cheerilee.” you kindly return. “So are the kids always this rowdy?”

“Only when we have visitors.” she giggles. “You know, my students have been bringing food from your diner as packed lunch ever since it opened. That’s what really gets them riled up during recess.”

It’s true that when you’d opened up shop, a curious little blue foal was your first customer. He’d bought some food from you and his eyes widened at the first bite. He probably spread word about your diner as many foals started buying from your diner nearly every morning, mostly because your food was cheap, delicious, and healthy. Of course you made a little profit from each plate sold but it was just a small margin, smaller than what most restaurants make. Despite how popular it is with multiple foals, the ponies seem to be of average amount when it comes to how much of them eat there. Though you’ve only been up for a couple of weeks so you tell yourself again to just give it some time.

“Some of them give me a plate of your food sometimes when they could buy two meals form you. Oh, the adorable little things don’t have to get some for me but they do anyway. How sweet of them.” Cheerilee shrilled with her eyes closed.

“So how’s it taste?” you say in response to keep the conversation balanced.

“Oh, it was a grilled cheese sandwich with hay fries and it was just flawless. The ingredients were well-balanced, the cooking was done just right, and the flavor was all there with it’s healthiness. Reminds me of what my mom used to make.”

Now that, that is a true review right there. It puts a smile on your face to finally hear someone say something about your cooking besides “it’s pretty good”.

“Thanks Cheerilee. I… I needed to hear that.” you say as your eyes glisten a bit but not enough to cry.

“Aww, anytime dearie.”

“Here, why don’t you have some for lunch. It’s on me.” you offer as you summon a carbonara pasta that the other you just made onto your hand. After all, a meal tastes its best when it’s made with love.

Cheerilee is visibly confused as to how you got that pasta when you’ve had nothing on you this whole time except for the suit on your back. “How did you do that?”

“Well,” you sigh looking off into the distance, “it’s a long story… not really, but it’s a tale for another time.”

Cheerilee seems to just accept that excuse as she shrugs and takes the pasta from your hand. “Thanks for the meal. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it, it looks delicious.”

“Well it’s technically my cooking so I’m certain of it.” you condescend with a smug look on your face.

Cheerilee just smiles and rolls her eyes at that.

“So, what brings you here?” Cheerilee continues.

“Me, Twilight and Pinkie were just strolling around in the park babysitting Flurry Heart and the Cake twins when we heard the little kids from the school fussing around so we decided to drop by.”

“Oh my, were we really that loud?” Cheerilee asks with an embarrassed look on her face.

“Could hear them from a mile away.”

The both of you chuckle from your remark.

“Actually, I thought about bringing Flurry Heart and the Cake twins here to show them their soon-to-be school.” you say without actual certainty of where they’ll study. Though you do hope they’ll study here so you can spend time with them. You always wanted to be a friendly-figure to a child growing up, the mere idea always put a warm feeling in your heart.

“Why, I’m sure they’ll have a great time here.” Cheerilee says cheerily.

You frown realizing that Flurry Heart will probably study in Canterlot since she’s a princess. You scratch off the thought and just decide to cross that bridge when you get there, you can still visit her anyway.

“So what’s it like? Teaching, I mean.”

“It’s sweeter than what most people think, actually.” she looks off the still-bustling crowd of kids surrounding your friends. “Yes, they can take a toll on you sometimes.” she then closes her eyes as she looks down. “But they’re a nice little bunch overall. Looking deeper, you realize everyone has a world of their own. Each and every one having something common to all, yet still so unique to their own. Everyone has their problems, and sometimes only other people have the answers to those problems. That’s what makes us so great, isn’t it? How we all compliment and complete each other somehow. What makes it so beautiful… is how we could choose to help others or not. That’s why I like to teach. I’d like to try and make these foals better. I’d like to help them because I know that someday, somehow… they’ll return the favor and help someone in need as I’d helped them.”

Wow, well that was deep. It sounded like it was gonna be a generic answer at first but then she got pretty philosophical. She’s pretty down-to-earth for someone who teaches little kids, you think you’re gonna like her. Though as much as you’d like to get to know her more, you’ve got to leave. She’s probably busy and you, Twilight, and Pinkie have to move on somewhere already.

“That was an astonishing answer to say the least. Sorry, but I think we’ve got to go. Seeing that you’re busy and all.” you then snap your fingers and Pinkie, Twilight, and both strollers are now right next to you. Pinkie seems to be juggling some cupcakes then drops them all into her mouth once she realizes that she’s in front of Cheerilee. An audible “awww” of disappointment can be heard from the group as they whine in unison.
“Hi, Ms. Cheerilee.” Pinkie and Twilight glowingly greet.

Cheerilee dismisses the fact that Pinkie, Twilight, and the babies just appeared in front of her out of her instinct to give others a courteous greet when meeting them. “Why hello there Pinkie, Twilight, and hewo there to you my wittle bundles of sunshine.” Cheerilee adorably coos as she nuzzles all three of the little foals.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye Anon. Maybe I’ll come by the diner sometime.”

Twilight perks up after hearing that. “Yes, yes. I think we should leave,” she then looks back at the crowd who’s nearing in on all of you. “Now!”

You all just give her statement a good old laugh.

“Maybe you should come by the bar sometime when the diner closes.” you offer her knowing that she knows about it.

“You know what? Maybe I will sometime.” she answers.

You smile at that and bid your goodbyes as the six of you make your leave. All the kids are waving goodbye and so do the three of you.

Leaving now with a good mood, Pinkie asks, “Where to now, Anon?”

You didn’t really think things through that far yet. With a heavy growl from your stomach and a similar response from Twilight and Pinkie, you get an idea. “It’s a little early, but let’s get some lunch.”

The six of you are now standing in front of your diner waiting to get something to eat. You’d love to eat elsewhere, but nothing feels more home than home. Plus you really do make some good food. It’s a tad narcissistic of you, but that’s besides the point.

You’re all walking in the diner now as you all spot another you by the counter. “Hello me, 3 of your finest dishes please and another 3 of your finest baby formulas.”

“A fine choice, me. Take your seats here by the counter and they’ll be out right away.”

Pinkie and Twilight are clearly entertained at your little act as they giggle at you. You take your seats and boy did the other you mean right away as the plates are already in front of all of you the moment you took your seats.

“3 delicious noodle recipes from Earth. A one of a kind indeed here in Equestria. I present to you, ‘Vegetable Lo-mein’.” the other you classily presents with a French accent.

You could use a noodle dish every once in a while, and you’d like an Asian dish as well. Lo-mein, really is pretty good.

“Another 3 of our finest baby formulas, heated to the perfect temperature. It is also processed and fermented to be of the utmost quality.” the other you once more showcases with a French accent as he hands you the baby bottles.

“Thanks me. You’ve been quite the help.” you praise.

“Anytime, me. It pleases me to be of assistance.”

“Let’s eat!” Pinkie exclaims as she stuffs her face to the plate.

Twilight just rolls her eyes at her gesture. “Wait, I’ll feed the foals first.”

As Twilight looks at you, she just missed you eating your food at the speed of light. “No worries, Twilight. I’ll do it. You can go eat your food.” you offer with a smile.

Twilight just smiles at you back and starts digging in with Pinkie.

“Need a hand, me?” the other you offers as well.

“It’s alright, me. I got this.”

The other you just nods and continues to wipe the counters clean.

You grab all the three little foals in a warm hug and you look at them caringly as they adorably giggle about. “Hey there little guys, I bet you’re hungry aren’t you?” you kindly ask.

They nod in unison as you just give them a smile. You now have three right arms as you stuff a baby bottle in their mouths with each hand.

As you feed the three little foals, Twilight speaks up in astoundment. “This lo-mein tastes amazing!”
she exclaims with her eyes sparkling as she finishes what’s left in her plate. Pinkie would do the same but the food was so good and filling that she’s already asleep. Twilight looks at Pinkie and gives a little chuckle. “Oh my, we might’ve over welcomed our stay.”

“Not at all, my home is your home. And this area is kind of a public spot. Right, me?”

The other you perks up, “That’s right, me. This house is a home for all.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” you say as you remove the now-empty baby bottles from the little foals. They’re yawning now, quite a natural response. Turning them towards you, you put one of them on your back and burp them as you do the same to the rest. They’re sleeping peacefully now with a cute snort every now and then. You place them back in their strollers and stuff Pinkie with Flurry Heart. Her stroller is big enough for a full grown pony for some reason as Pinkie and Flurry Heart use each other as a soft pillow. Twilight and you simply gush at the cute spectacle.

“Welp, I guess that’s that. It’s a little early but I’ve had a great day today, Twilight. I believe it’s time we part ways.”

Twilight would object but she agrees when she realizes that it wouldn’t be much of a babysit if the babies are asleep and so is Pinkie.

“I had a great time too, Anon. It’s a real treat to have some fun with my friends especially when we do something fun. Except for that trip to the school, I think some of them tried to get some strands of my hair.” Twilight recalls as she, you, and the other you laugh at the memory.

“You know, you’re kind of like their uncle huh?” Twilight asks with a cheery tone.

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Since I’m their auntie then that kind of makes us brother and sister.”

Twilight is chuckling at the thought now until you just had a devious remark to make. “Or lovers.” you hastily quip knowing that that’ll win you a raging blush from Twilight, to which she does ragingly blush with a thousand yard stare.

Another nefarious thought comes to mind. You implant an image of you and Twilight in a marriage ceremony as the binding kiss is in motion. Her entire face gets redder and redder the closer the both of your lips get. You remove the thought right before the most climactic part ensues.

“Fufufu. What’s the matter, Twilight? Having some indecent thoughts?” you jokingly say with a smug look on your face.

“N-N-No, it’s nothing.” she stutters as her blush doesn’t disappear. She then grabs both strollers with her magic. “A-Anyway, I think it’s time we take our leave.”

She’s leaving now and is by the diner door though she stops after hearing your voice. “Alright, see you soon Twilight. Maybe we can hang out together some time, just us.”

“S-Sure, why not? I bet it’ll be fun.” she still stutters blushing.

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Well, goodbye then Anon. Have a nice day.”

“Have a good one too, Twilight.” you say with a winning face as Twilight’s color by her head is practically red. You give them a wave goodbye with your thee right arms though Twilight doesn’t look back as she hastily takes her leave.

Twilight with her two strollers are now out of sight as you smile and turn to the other you. “Well other me, let’s get going with the daily grind. It’s almost lunch time.”

The other you gives a nod as the both of you start preparing the diner for the bustling crowd that’ll have lunch there.

Author's Note

It was a pretty rough time for me writing this chapter. Mostly because it was a hard time for me with the baby events. It’s finally here though so I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for the read. Tune in next time for a duo of mares in the bar. Can you take a guess who they’ll be?