Twiastasia

Twilight stared in wonder at the fields of dandelions lining the dirt path. The white puffs danced in the breeze, and in the distance, a young town of little note. It had no name on the map, but judging from the far off mountains looming ahead, this had to be the right direction. ‘One more mountain pass, then a straight shot to the Typhon Ocean. From there, we can decide if sailing would be possible, or we could just hike up the coast like planned.’ Anon’s eyes drifted to Twilight. ‘Soon…’

The human snickered as Twilight dashed into the dandelion field, sending little white buds up into the sky. Anon would’ve been concerned she had somehow figured out they weren’t really heroes after all and booked it, had Twilight not been laughing so joyfully.

“Hey! What’re you doing Twilight!?” Gile snapped out of his bored reprise. “We gotta get to town!”

Anon sighed “It can’t be helped…” and ran into the field after Twilight. The griffon waited in his place impatiently for his friend to scoop up the purple pony and show her reason, but that never came. Instead, he watched in awe as Anon almost skipped through the flowers.

‘Are they… playing?’ Gile’s eye twitched.

Twilight danced through the field, giggling with happiness as Anon came up behind her and spun her about, the dandelion buds dancing alongside them. Gile had thought Anon was only ever happy when holding bits, like him.

Now he had seen everything.

“I-I can’t believe you two! C’mon!” Gile’s shouts fell on deaf ears.

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud, featherbrain!” Anon called back, before turning back to Twilight. “Follow my lead, learned this from watching some minotaur couple back at this place Gile and I used to live in.”

Anon brought Twilight up to her hindlegs, her forehooves in his hands, and danced her about through the flowers, as if ballroom dancing, but much, much wilder. And messier.

Anon wasn’t much of a dancer, and Twilight had probably never seen other creatures dance before.

“Hey! Youngin’ pony and skinny minotaur! Git yer behinds outta mah dandelion field! We eat those!” Some old, cranky pony farmer shouted from afar.

Gile nodded and pumped his arms. “Yeah! C’mon you weirdos! I’m HUNGRY!”

“Are- Are they dancin’!?” The old stallion shouted to Gile.

“Ye- YES!! WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE!?”

“Awww! Tha’s adorable! Ah used’ta do that with my sweetheart all the time! Maybe I shou…” His tone shifted considerably, and his voice quickly petered out as he turned on his hooves back for his home.

“I- NO! COME BACK AND HELP ME OLD PONY!” Gile could plead all he wanted, but the stallion was gone. “Grrr… Ugh. Fine!” The griffon sighed. This much radiating happiness was more than he was used to, and he couldn’t fight his emotions any longer. With a grumble, he too flew over to the pair. Though, he had made sure to blast Anon with a gust of wind from his beating wings, sending a blast of flowers into his face. “Wow, this is fun after all huh?” Gile couldn't keep the smirk from his face.

Anon bent down and captured a handful of dandelion, tossing it up into Gile’s beak, who coughed wildly. “P-prick! That got into my nose!” The friends chased each other about, laughing and shouting, until exhausted. They fell and rested near each other, faces up to the shining sky.

“Huff huff, Oh Celestia, I haven’t had that much fun since, well, since I can remember!”

“Hoo man, I am out of shape… Gah! I needed that…” Anon plucked a small feather from Gile and fanned himself with it, as if it would cool him any.

“Ow! You’re lucky that little tuft you call hair isn’t worth the skin it grows on, monkey, or I’d pay you back for that.”

“C’mon Gile, you know you love us.”

“Yeah yeah… Hey, did you say Celestia? As in, the sun goddess?” Gile turned his head upwards towards the unicorn, who now seemed shocked.

“... I-I guess I did, huh? Who’s that? M-maybe my memories are coming back!? Oh! Was I a princess before I got, well, you know!?”

Anon turned to Gile, just as confused. “F-from what we’ve heard… She’s the ruler of Equestria. Or so that old coot said.”

Horror filled Gile.

“Why do you say it like that? Didn’t she send you two?” Twilight cocked her head in innocent confusion.

‘This can be salvaged.’ Gile, quick on his claws, spoke fast. “We’re not natives to Equestria. The Princess had sent out letters to heroes all across the world. We were just the first to find you.”

Twilight still held a bit of confusion on her face, but seemed content with the response. Gile internally screamed. “Huh. Jeez… I can’t imagine how long I’ve been gone then. I guess the Equestrian Royal Guards couldn’t really search beyond their borders…”

“P-precisely!” Anon answered. Smooth…

“Um, yeah, no offense to the Equestrians or whatever, but they seem really incompetent from what we, well, haven’t seen of them. I guess they extended their search letter to the greater world after the search for you went dry in the homeland.” The party started to get up, continuing back towards the town.

“Well, it’s not like I know them or anything, so, uh, no harm done? I had no idea they were… Ah! This is all so strange!” Twilight stomped her hooves into the flowers, immediately regretting crushing them.
“I-I’ve been trying to not think about it, what with all the antics and such, b-but… But this is wrong! Why did whichever pony who did this to me, well, do this to me!? I can’t even begin to think of reasons why because I don’t know anything, and I HATE it!! I can’t think of reasons, the logistics of the search, how long it’s been since I was gone, I-I don’t even know ME!!” With that, Twilight crumpled to the ground once more, choking back sobs.

Anon bent down to cradle her in his arms and kept moving. “C’mon now Twi. Everything's not lost… We’re gonna get you back to Equestria, the princess will restore your memories, and everything will be fine.” He shifted her in his arms, so he could look into her eyes. She averted her gaze, fat tears still falling. The human tilted her head, so she had no choice.

“I promise.”

“I promise too, Twilight.” Gile had flown up beside the human, concerned. “We like you a lot, and we want to help. I-it’s our job, afterall.”

“It’s more than a job now.”

All Twilight could manage was a meager “T-thank you... “ in between sobs. Gile and Anon shared a look before silently continuing onwards.

…

Deep underneath a nameless mountain in the Badlands, the beast retched madly, letting loose a feral noise, shrieking in ecstatic pleasure. A long since dug out hollow in the ground had been uncovered by it’s smokey tendrils. Some sort of cave system. In the natural blackness of the unknown cave, a foul dark wildly invades and fills the void with efficiency.

“Lovely… Empty…” Evir felt a shred of his vision dash toward the newly uncovered space, taking in the sight. At his current strength, he could not truly see anything in it’s darkness, but understood that what he ‘saw’ was not ‘it.’ Not the smoke. Just as quickly as it had been found, it had been filled with his gaseous ichor. And just as soon as his fog had filled the room and touched its walls, it began to dig, in pursuit of more space. It’s- no, his growth was enfeebling his mind. He knew not truly why he was digging, but when such thoughts came to him, that ever lingering static in his head grew to a roar of harsh noise, and he’d stop thinking such things. He only felt at ease when growing.

“Lovely…”

…

The town, Verona, as the locals called it, was undeserving of such a pretty name, Anon thought. ‘It’s got the small town feel down well enough, but still. Verona sounds like a much better city than it does a town.’ He idled over such thoughts as he thumbed a necklace in his hand. No matter how small a town, there is always a market. The boys had decided to actually buy something nice for Twilight, since her episode in the field. Normally, stealing would be easy enough, and Gile had offered, but… Anon felt guilty for once. Snatching some trinket to cheer Twilight up seemed… wrong. The thief shook his head, fearing the worst. He wasn’t… gaining a conscience was he? By the stars…

“Anon! This one’s got alot of gems in it! She’s still distracted, yes?” Gile asked at his side.

“Who, the mercha- Oh! Twilight.” Anon kept his snicker to himself. ‘Nope, no conscience here.’ “Yeah, she’s watching those colts play with their sparklers.”

A little ways away, Twilight watched, entranced, as foals laugh and chase each other around with sparkler sticks. Her eyes shined with the intensity of the sparkles themselves, flittering about in the air before burning up into nothing. As far as she knew, it was the first time she’d ever seen such a thing. Yet the grown mares and stallions around her barely give a second glance. ‘Why? Were these tools commonplace? Had they played with such things when they were young? Had I?’ Such thoughts, now no longer bottled up, felt cathartic to the unicorn. She’d know. In time.
They promised.

“Hey mister, I’d like one of the sparklers.” Anon’s familiar voice knocked Twilight out of her thoughts. She looked over at him blankly.

“Uh, minotaur fella, you know these are fer kids, right?”

Anon rolled a bit his way. “I’m forever young, old timer.”

The stallion grumbled and handed the human a lit sparkler. “Damn youngins’, don’t got no respect…”

Anon sat down on a nearby bench, handing Twilight the shining stick. “It’s a sparkler. They dip the sticks in some sort of magic powder, touch it to fire, then woosh!”

Gingerly, Twilight took the rod in both hooves, eyes wide.

“Just uh, heh, don’t touch the shiny parts. They’re hot. Learned that one the hard way my first time.”

… Blushing, Twilight slowly lowered her hoof back down to the thinner end of the stick. Cautiously at first, but quickly gaining speed, she waved the light back and forth and all around. She particularly loved watching the afterimage of the fading light, as if she was drawing a line in three-dimensional space. She tried drawing the sun with the sparkler, but it’d disappear too fast. Regardless, she was in love.

“Tch, a sparkler’s cool and all, Twilight, but check this out!” With a triumphant “Haha!” Gile handed Twilight a small silver necklace. It was simple, holding a little circular plate with a dandelion engraved on both sides. A bright sparkler in one hoof, a necklace in the other. Two gifts from her two friends in this world.

“Sure beats a little sparkler, don’t it mare?” Gile said smugly, casting a coy look at Anon.

“Psh. I paid for half of it. Besides, the one you were looking at cost way too much.”

“Well sorry! I’m not used to buy- Eheh, buying such accessories!”

The two would’ve continued their banter, were it not for the bear hug Twilight wrapped them both in. “Easy there Twi, it’s just a necklace.”

“M-mare must have some earth pony blood in her! J-jeez!”

“Thank you thank you thank youthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!”

“Here, lemme put it on you.” Anon took the necklace from her hoof and hooked the two ends together around her neck. He got a good look into Twilight’s eyes. Her wide, inquisitive, purple pools. They were filled with wonder and, assumedly, innocence. In her eyes, Anon saw trust, and he saw happiness. Though he wouldn’t ever admit it, he found it hard to look away.

“No way... “ Gile silently mouthed, in clear shock.

...

“Ahem.”

Anon focused his gaze on his little nightstand, counting up his bits. A very light haul. He had counted and recounted his coins at least three times by now- not because he felt he had stolen more, but because he was ignoring the very obviously nosy griffon sitting across from him on his bed.

“Ahem.”

The ‘inn’ they were staying at, if you could even call it that, housed very small rooms. This made it all the harder to appear busy in the dim yellow lantern light. This task was made even harder still by the sleeping form of a unicorn, nestled in bed right behind Anon.

“Ahem.”

She did not snore, no, nor was she a kicker in her sleep. Anon knew, however, that she was the subject of Gile’s constant “Ahem.”s.

“Ahe- Anon I know you can hear me.”

Seventy-eight, seventy-nine…

“Anon-”

“Yes, I can hear you Gile.”

Both voices were barely above a whisper, and thieves can whisper very well. So well that neither party was concerned about addressing the elephant in the room. That is to say…

“Dude, we gotta talk about this.”

Neither party was concerned about waking the pony in the room.

“No we don’t.”

“We totally do.”

“Alright-” Anon sighed and shuffled his eighty-five bits into his pouch, then patted down his clothes instinctively, feeling for his emergency bit supplies. A hundred and five overall. “-let’s talk about this.”

“Anon… You know you’re my bro, and I’d die for you, but if you’re gonna go down the route I think you will-”

“I haven’t made any decisions, Gile.”

“See, you think you haven’t now, but I think you don’t have a choice. I think you’re already too deep in it.”

“Is that supposed to be an innuendo? Because you’re wrong if-”

Gile huffed and spoke in a quick whisper-shout “Youknowthatwasn’taninnuendo! Dude! There’s like, a seventy percent chance she’s royalty, and like, eighty percent chance she’s already with a stallion!”

“Those numbers are totally made up and you have no idea if either of them are true. Also I’m not into her so it’s a non-issue.”

“You are so full of it! I saw that face you made when she looked at you! You just needed to be down on one knee with a ring in your finger and you would’ve done it! By the winds, s-she might have even said yes!”

“You’re overreacting, Gile.”

“Iamnotoverreacting! She is of better stock than us! Way better!”

“Maybe better than you…”

“Shutup! I just don’t want you getting hurt man. You falling in love was not part of this plan! We bring her to Equestria, she saves the world or whatever, and we get rich as Tartarus! That was the plan!”

“Since when have we ever done things according to our own plans?”

“Basically never! That’s what’s scary about all this! But now you’re switching things up again! We can literally have our cake and eat it too here, except now you’re trying to have the cake, eat it, then marry the fucking baker!!”

Anon sighed, stashing his belongings once more. “Look Gile. I know what this all looks like, and what you think you might’ve saw, but I promise you I’m not that stupid.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Funny. Now, what do you say we put a hold on this conversation, go to sleep, then reconvene in a week about it?”

Gile huffed and jumped off the bed, doing a few circles before lying down on the floor. “If you haven’t got a weird mutant baby with her by then, sure.”

“Man, you should be a comedia- Why’d you get off the bed?”

The griffon rolled his eyes. “Because it’s yours, stupid.”

“What? I got a bed right here-”

Anon tried stopping himself, but it was too late.

“Sleeping with her while I’m in the room? No shame Anon.”

“Shut up dude… I could sleep on the floor if you want.”

Gile responded with closed eyes. “I do, but then you’d complain about back pains all next morning, and I don’t get those when I sleep on the floor, so take your victories Romeo.”

“... You know, I actually did read that book after that library robbery, and both ponies die at the end, so-”

“Shut up Anon.”

…

“How are rations lookin Gile?”

“We’re fine for another five days, if you carried some, you’d have an inkling.”

“Can you two stop whining? I’m trying to map overhear.”

“... Sorry Twi.” The human and griffon say in unison.

Twilight wasn’t sure why, but her friends had been acting… funny for the past couple days. They didn’t seem anymore mad at eachother than usual, not like they were ever truly ‘mad’ at eachother, but… Something was definitely up. She may have had her memories erased, but she retained social cues, and she knew asking them now would mean she’d never know, so the unicorn kept quiet, opting to listen, rather than ask.

A pony back in Verona had told Gile that these mountains were the ‘Hoofreach Heights,’ a name that marked ponykind’s first venture onto the continent Echidna, some hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Gile didn’t care very much for the history lesson, but Twilight sure did. Originally, The pair had decided the night of finding her to keep away from major cities and roads, keeping only on the paths less traveled, for her sake, and theirs. The passage of weeks lessened those rules, and, seemingly, the closer they got to Equestrian shores, no matter how still far away, the more kinder folk they found. ‘Perhaps’ Anon thought ‘Equestria truly is a land of gods and heroes.’ It made his mind wander to Twilight herself, and the things she might’ve done in her past… Which made his mind wander further, to the concerned words of his best friend, some nights ago. Surely this good deed would add something to his so tarnished name, right?

Snow fell lazily around the trio as they hiked their way through hoof-fuls of snow and ice. It was obvious to them all now that traversing by ocean was very likely out of the question. With these mountains so close to the coast, the Typhon Sea was sure to be a treacherous iceberg seascape, and with no large ports on this eastern coast…

“G-gah. Even here, so low in the mountain range, I’m freezing my balls off.”

Twilight cocked her head as she trotted. “Your balls? What balls?”

Anon choked on his laughter and Gile puffed his plumage, blushing furiously.

“I- You-... N-nothing Twilight.”

“Come on! You guys have been keeping secrets since we left Verona! I don’t wanna be left out!”

Anon’s laughter intensified, despite his freezing cold. There had been no tailors willing to work on a human in Verona, afterall. “H-h-he’s talking about his- O-oh, oh my god, hah… Fuck, I needed that laugh.”

“Language Anon! Seriously! What’re you guys not telling me?”

Anon leaned over and, despite his quaking shivers, whispered something into Twilight’s ear. Something that made her go beet red. Anon nearly fell to his knees in laughter.

“W-why, of all things, did I have to forget about THAT!?” Twilight asked aloud.

“D-do you even-”

“I-I MEAN, I KNOW NOW!!!”

Now Anon and Gile were both laughing.

“I-IT’S NOT FUNNY!”