All Ends With Beginnings

You flinched slightly.

You continued rolling the gauze around your withers. Last wound to cover up. You sat on a sidewalk in one of the neighborhoods you were running through.

You finally managed to escape the wrath of Anon’s school and the horrors inside it. Though you couldn’t help but feel that was just the beginning.

It was dark out, it was night. Though it was a different kind of night. There weren’t as many stars in the sky, you didn’t know if that was because of the light pollution coming from the city in the distance, or if Anon’s journal or world just had less stars in the sky.

You couldn’t feel a connection to the moon here either. It sat motionless in the sky.

You used your teeth to cut the excess gauze and tightened it.

“That should do it. Should’ve grabbed some alcohol or something.”

Not that you’d be any worse of with out it. Though it’d help. Superior alicorn immune system for the win.

You packed up the rest of the items you picked up in the school and packed them into your satchel. You remember finding something called a ‘bus stop’ a ways back. You don’t know what a bus was, but you did see that it had a map there. While you didn’t want to back track back in the direction toward the school, you had to find out where exactly Anon’s home was.

Assuming that’s what the address in his student file was. You picked your self up and walked back into the direction of where the map was.

Finding the bus stop you studied the map closely.

Human maps were weird. Human homes looked weird. Human streets...yea weird.

What ever. You looked at the address on Anon’s sheet again, 547 north west lane, and looked back at the map.

The map itself didn’t show you any house numbers, or any indications of houses at all despite some buildings of interest. It did give you street names however and a helpful ‘you are here’ dot.

North west lane seemed to only be a few blocks away. It’d be easier to fly there, if one of your wings weren’t out of commission. Damn heathen children. No use in cursing your luck now, you had to find Anon’s home. You decided this map would be very useful.

You turned around reared your hind leg that wasn’t cut open or bit into, and bucked the glass the map was behind. Breaking it to pieces. You grabbed the map and stuffed it into your pack and continued down the suburban street.

There was an eerie yet calm stillness in the air. The only noise being made was by that of bushes and trees in the wind. Large metal boxes with tires on them blocked parts of the wider street.

Some of them were on fire, others had lights on their fronts flickering on and off. You recall Anonymous mentioning these things. ’Cars’ you think they were called? Human transportation was weird.

Papers were strewn across the street, garbage poured out of their bins. It looked like chaos in the street, yet that calming silence persisted.

The neighborhood seemed completely abandoned. Few houses had light coming from the inside. Streetlamps using the same fireless lights towered over you on the corners of the streets.

Again a few were flickering. The whole world seemed to be in a state of disrepair and abandonment.

It was as if a riot had just occurred and then the human populace had just vanished.

The combined quite and goal with a path of seemingly little of any obstacles gave you some time to think. To really soak in where you where and ponder what has happened and what may.

You WERE in Anon’s journal, and outside of it being used as a strange sort of therapy, and being the source of Anon’s conscious, you knew relatively little about it.

Was the world you were in an accurate representation of the world Anon lived in? If so how? It seemed impossible to live in. Too dangerous and dilapidated. Too broken.

You recall the state Anon was in when you first met him, and how he was against anypony reading through his journal. He must have been through here then. But how did HE get here? He wrote it, and humans couldn’t use magic.

By the maker, Anon has been through this Tartarus. You winced recalling the memory on how you just threw him in the dungeon. He didn’t seem to mind anymore and was understanding.

But after what you went through, needing help, terrified and confused, only to be thrown into a prison cell and treated like a prisoner? The guilt made your chest tighten.

Throwing a lost creature that went through Tartarus and back into a prison. Someone who needed help.

You needed help.

The empty streets were really beginning to emphasize the loneliness. A far too familiar feeling.

Hm…’Familiar’. A strange term to use in such a different world. The whole world was different. It’s architecture, it’s technology, the ways human’s worked.

You heard all of the stories from Anonymous but actually being here really put things in their place. You thought back to the school. A lot of it was so weird. Everything here was.

Though you couldn’t shake the feeling of how wrong it felt. Assuming this wasn’t as accurate as it appeared, you could definitely tell the difference between what was just different in this world, and what was just...wrong.

It was wrong to see those children attack you. For you to have to kill them.

That horrible tall monster ripping the children apart with it’s horrible hands. The inconsistency of how one moment, a crowd of the heathens would attack you, and the next moment just stare into your soul and do nothing. How that could change in a heart beat as well.

How the only creature that felt compelled to do harm was the giant, and how it thought it was helping.

Assuming you can believe the words it spoke.

You hated classes when you were younger too, but never have you wanted to just get out of a school like just a few scant moments ago. Bless the soul of Anonymous.

Anonymous.

That’s where your thoughts turned to next. Why must the last encounter with him be so unpleasant and confusing.

Was that even Anonymous? He looked like a mess.

...okay even more of a mess than he usually did.

But there was something so off putting. Something wrong with this one. But at the same time far more real.

Other than the sudden attitude change and loss of memory, the strangest aspect about this Anonymous was that blind fold.

How was he able to see with that on? And why did there have to be crosses over where his eyes would have been. Would did that mean?

You could have sworn you saw blood from a wound on his head seeping through it. Was it a way to cover an injury? Did he suffer cranial trauma? Is that why he was acting so different? Why he didn’t remember who you were? That didn’t explain the ability to just disappear out of no where though.

You sighed and looked up. A blue sign reading ‘North West Ln.’ stood on the corner of one of the streets.

Almost there. You turned down the street. You turned your thoughts back to Anonymous.

That seemed to happen a lot. Even before coming here. You worried about him. Ever since the night he expressed an increased feeling of comfort being around you and the acknowledgment of your similarities with each other, you two seemed to be inseparable.

He was the best friend you ever had minus your sister. Yet thinking of him even as ‘the best and possibly only friend you ever had’ seemed so...disappointing?

Not that you were disappointed with Anonymous. Heavens no! You just wanted...something more.

You were fooling yourself. Beating around the bush. You knew what you wanted, what you felt. You just never explicitly thought it. Or said it aloud.

You had feelings for Anonymous. The species difference was odd, but that wasn’t an unheard of occurrence in Equestria. Humans were the only intelligent creatures in his world though. The concept may be too foreign to Anon. Perhaps even borderline immoral to him.

The thought of that hurt. It cut deeper than any rusty pair of scissors could. That didn’t even touch on the mortality of Anon. He was still mortal. And would eventually leave the living world. The thought of that hurt a lot more.

Even if the possibility of you two ever being more than friends was slim, or actually an impossibility, the loss of a friend as close as him would be devastating. If only the friendship could last forever. If only it could be more than that.

You stopped in your tracks and just stared at the ground. A horrible feeling in your chest. A feeling as though you had already lost him. Impossible to imagine. He was still fine outside the book right? But the wound he had, the change in behavior. The fact he was a mortal.

Your vision began to become blurry. You dropped onto your haunches. You could feel tears rolling down your cheeks.

If all of that were true...the purpose in all of this felt hopeless. It couldn’t be hopeless though. Could it?

You wrapped your hooves around your face and lowered your head to the ground. You lay there sobbing your heart out for a good half hour. Not sure how to handle all of these feelings. Curse your immortality, curse your body, curse the Tartarus you found yourself in.

Curse the unrelenting loneliness you felt. It’s times like these you really needed somepony to hold in an embrace.

Something Anonymous was usually happy to fill. But he’s not here. And if the last interaction you had with him was anything to go by, he may have despised the proposition.

But. There were times he didn’t. Every other time. Why were you so focused on the Anonymous of now? That wasn’t the Anonymous still in Equestria. You hoped.

There was still an Anon outside this journal. There was still an Anon alive, there was still a reason to be here, RIGHT NOW. You aggressively rubbed the tears out of your eyes and picked your self up.

To hay with feeling sorry for yourself. No more selfishness of what you want or what may happen to YOU.

You loved Anon and wanted nothing but the best for him. You were here to help HIM. And if your time was short with him, you had to help him with these demons. You’re too far in now.

You pumped your self up, punching the mailbox in front of you with your hoof. Right in the numbers.

The numbers…547.

Wait.

You pulled out the address on Anon’s record.
‘547 North West Lane.’

You looked back to the numbers on the mailbox.

WHAT AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE!
You conveniently decided to stop and cry like a foal in front of the place you needed to be!

…

Okay focus. You turned and studied the house in front of you. An average sized home, it looked similar to every other house on the street. It didn’t have light coming from the inside. You took a deep breath in, and then out.

It’s time. No more crying. You had to do this. For a friend. Your straightened yourself, filled with determination. One hoof in front of the other. You walked up to the door.

“I will help you through this Anonymous. Or die trying.” You entered the house.

You honestly expected the door to be locked. Even if it were, you probably would’ve just kicked the door down. It was flimsy any ways.

The inside of the house was...honestly fine.

There was dust everywhere, a little messy, and dark but hey give yourself a day of cleaning and it’d be livable.

No boarded up doors, no mold, no rot. Honestly relatively nice. Entering the door led to a small hallway before giving way to the living room.

Now that you were there you had to find...something. You really wanted to just find Anon but not knowing where he was, you decided finding clues about where he COULD be had to suffice.

And no one seemed to be home. What ever. You first searched around the living room. Nothing of note really.

Two sofas faced a large black box on a dresser. In the middle was a small table, some magazines, some books.

Nothing that would have helped really. Ah! The kitchen and dining area. Entering it your nostrils were invaded with the horrible smell of decay.

Thankfully it was just the food that was left on the counter and a refrigerator left open. The food was black and shriveled. Or green and fuzzy.

A bowl of chowder had its own ecosystem, how tantalizing. The worst of it was a slab of meat that had maggots crawling through it.

Though with what you had previously went through, it was only enough to make you slightly cringe and gag. You decided to close the fridge so as to not smell the rotting food any longer than you had to.

Hm. What was this? A note mentioning Anon!

’Anon’s job phone number and address: 555-240-1209, 1576 South Elroy Street’

Not to sure what a ‘phone number’ was, but hey a new address. No doubt that this must’ve been where Anon lived. Before leaving you decide to explore a bit. No doubt you’d find something useful here.

You exited the kitchen and went down the hall way closer towards the back of the house. All the doors were open fortunately.

A quick peak into one room showed an average bedroom. Nothing really spectacular. Queen sized bed seemingly big enough for two humans. You were about to continue down the hall way when something caught your eye.

No. That can’t be.

You entered the bedroom and picked up one of the pictures on the dresser. By the heavens it is!

Awwwwwww.

It was a picture of Anonymous as a little foal. A much better looking child than the ones back at the school.

A quick glance over and you found a family picture. His father looked so tired. He was seemingly staring off into the camera. His mother appeared the same. Anon stood in the front disinterested. As if he had better things to do to occupy his time. They were cute pictures none the less.

…

You placed the one of the young Anon in your bag and placed the family picture back onto the dresser. It wasn’t creepy. It was sweet. This house? This street? Hay, probably the whole neighborhood? That was creepy.

You exited the master bedroom and entered the only other one in the hall. Anon’s bedroom you had to guess.

It had another one of those boxes. Smaller this time.

Posters hung on the wall, mostly for what appeared to be films and bands. Pills and a glass sat on his night stand. His bed was a mess. The sheets were tossed around. Clothes covered it, and a guitar sat leaned up against the edge.

Being here carried with it an almost surreal feeling. This is where Anonymous must have spent most of his childhood. You stood there for a moment, taking in the atmosphere. The subtle familiar smell of Anon allowing you to relive the few memories you experienced with him.

*click*

*creak*

The sound of the front door opening snapped you back to reality.

”I’m home!”

You hid out of sight from the door to Anon’s room. Half way in his closet.

You could hear the front door slam and heavy foot steps approach down the hallway. You could hear them enter one of the rooms and another door closing and then, the faint sound of running water from a faucet.

Was one of Anon’s parents home? The voice you heard after the door opening sounded male.

But weren’t his parents were dead. Did another Human family live here? But, Anon’s name was on the fridge!

Were there other Human’s named Anonymous? You peered down the hall way. None of the doors seemed to be closed. Quietly stepping out of Anon’s room you peered into the master bedroom.

The bathroom door was shut, and a faint bit of light poured through the small crack underneath, as well as the sound of running water. It was probably best to finally leave the house.

Before you could fully turn your head however, the faint sound of more footsteps could be heard approaching the hallway. Moonrocks, no time to dodge back into Anon’s room.

You managed to sneak quickly back into the master bedroom and hide behind the bed. The foot steps stopped. The door to the bedroom slowly shut. By the heavens please no. You weren’t trapped in here with some monster or something were you?

Did the tall woman find you? You looked from underneath the bed and past the sheets.

No legs.

Taking a chance, You peaked your eyes from behind the bed. You were alone. Did the thing in the hallway shut you inside the bedroom? You were really beginning to not trust your own judgment when placed in these situations. You didn’t see any where another creature could be in the house, and you’ve already made enough noise.

And if your ears weren’t playing tricks on you, why did it shut the door with out entering?

You just then noticed that the water had stopped running in the bathroom. The light from the night outside got very dim. The house and atmosphere seemed to get a lot quieter. If that were possible.

A calm set in that you really weren’t comfortable with.

*SLAM*

You snap your attention to the bathroom. The door opened with enough force to throw itself from its hinges. Light from the inside bathed the room in a soft yellow glow.

Inside the bathroom was...by the ground you walked on.

The tub portion was overflowing with water and a mixture of blood. The bathroom was caked in mud and dirt. In the shower, from a noose, hung the mangled and stripped corpse of a human.

Most of the flesh and muscle had been stripped from the bone. The eyes, still in their sockets stared directly at the floor.

It’s lower jaw, somehow still attached, hung open in what seemed like a terrifying mid scream. What remained of the digestive system, laid scattered across the floor.

Yep. You were definitely getting the hay out of this house. Screw the front door you were going to break a window. You turned away from the closest window towards you and got ready to buck it out of its frame.

You reared back, stabilized yourself, and kicked with all the force your could. You fell to your face.

What? How did…

You looked behind you. The wall was about three meters further away from you than it was just a few seconds ago. How was...that shouldn’t be possible!

You launched yourself back up to your hooves. The house was growing. What in Tartarus?

Sobbing could be heard from somewhere in the house. It sounded horrid. As if somepony were being tortured.

Nope! You definitely were NOT leaving through the front door. You focused towards the window and broke out into gallop, sprinting with all the energy you had in you toward the window. The house seemed to be growing faster and faster. Not fast enough though.

Once you felt you were close enough, you shut your eyes and lept, keeping your forehooves in front of you. You crashed through the window and landed onto the back lawn outside, knocking the wind out of you.

You picked your self up and ran toward the fence.

You jumped over it and landed into the yard of the house behind it. You jumped their fence and finally reached the street of the neighborhood right next to the one Anon’s house was on.

You turned and galloped down the street. Despite the running and distance between you and Anon’s house growing, the tortured wailing didn’t seem to be getting fainter. It actually started to get louder.

An expletive Anon would commonly use popped into your head as realization struck. For some reason you felt compelled to use it yourself given the situation.

“OH SHI-GUHH!”

Something tackled you from behind, wrapping its arms around your neck.

”PLEASE, NO PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. YOU’RE ALL I HAVE LEFT! PLEASE, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU. MY BABY, JESUS CHRIST, MY BABY!”

The grip around you was tightening, choking you out. You struggled to fill your lungs with air as you thrashed around. Much like the children in the school, what ever latched on to you had a vice like grip.

Those children however gave you the know how with how to deal with this situation.

Your reared yourself up and fell backwards on top of your assailant.

*CRUNCH*

You were really beginning to like that sound now, whenever you were the one causing it at least.

”GUKHHH!” It gurgled.

The grip loosened it self and you gulped down what felt like gallons of precious oxygen. You quickly scrambled to your feet and booked it. Not even looking back.

”PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME! YOU’RE STILL MY CHILD! I LOVE YOU! I CAN’T LOOSE YOU TOO!”

Are you kidding?

Keeping your gallop you turn down the main rode and dashed over a few cars. You could hear the slapping of feet approaching you.

“Buck this!”

And that’s exactly what you did.

You made one final buck, a wet splat could be heard and felt on your backside.

”Plushckk!” *Thump*

You were pretty sure that did it. The horrible crying stopped and the pair of feet giving chase with it. What ever was giving you chase was hopefully, finally, lying dead in the street behind you. You weren’t dumb enough to stop though.

A single glance behind you, and you could see a corpse of...something, lying motionless in the street.

“Thank the maker!”

You focused back to the street in front of you, never letting up. New mission and destination. Reach downtown, catch your breath, find Anon’s place of work.

The trees whizzed pass you. You were dodging and jumping over those car things left and right. You kept your eyes forward and focused. Focused on the skyline and buildings of the city in front of you.

~~~~