All Ends With Beginnings

The world around you was hazy.

The walls and ceilings of Anon’s apartment room around you appeared as though a film of grease was coating the surface of your eye and the world around you was cast in a blur.

The light in the room scattered in fixed beams. You didn’t feel right. You raised a hoof to your temple and began to gently message. You felt groggy, as though you had just woken up.

“W-wha? What happened?”

You managed to croak out. You had to think back to what had just transpired. You had finally made it inside the apartment after making it through the psychiatric clinic.

You shuddered as you recalled the metallic groaning and whispers from that horrid beast stalking its walls. After surviving that Tartarus, you entered the building and managed to finally make it to Anon’s room.

You remember that short walk so fondly. The music, the bright lights, the deep orange color of the walls, the smell, the temperature. It was all an amazing change of pace.

However...something bad happened after that. A familiar twisting sensation could be felt within the deepest parts of your stomach.

“Anonymous...what happened to Anonymous?”

You sat on your haunches and wrapped your hooves over your head. You could feel deep inside your heart that something happened. You recall seeing him throughout the travels of the book.

“Why must I feel like I’ve fallen from several stories in the air?”

The room around you had begun to get dimmer. Your thoughts have consumed you by this point. A specific human saying Anonymous brought up. Why did he bring that up again? The room around you has begun to blur to the point every shape and angle was nothing more than a vague blob. The light had dimmed to almost darkness at this point. A soft static tickled your eardrums. How did that saying go?

“The road to somewhere was paved in something.”

You didn’t notice the figure standing in front of you until you heard the click of a switch on the firearm it branded. You flinched and snapped your attention towards it, meeting its gaze. The human towered over you, its hoodie stained in wet dirt and perhaps a liter of crimson blood.

The face was covered by shadow but the blood shot eyes seemed to illuminate on their own. It’s stained teeth equally visible. In the hand by its side was a piece of cloth with two black crosses on the band. The other hand it used to point the barrel of the weapon directly between your eyes. The darkness within the hole seemed to stare back into you.

“A-anon?” You manage to shakily whimper out.

The last thing you heard was the pained croak of that familiar voice.

”Welcome to Hell.”

*Bang*

A door threw itself open, slamming against the concrete wall across from you. Your eyes shot open. You jumped to your hooves. Light shown above you, the light from the hole in the floor of Anons apartment from dozens of stories above you.

The static you heard from before was far more violent.

You could hear the panicked sobs from some unknown source paired with the screaming of a deranged psychopath screaming of sickness and violence against yourself. A red glow penetrated the door way, the shadows of twitching bodies and the bars of cages danced across the wall in a horrible ballet.

Red scribbling repeated it self on the ground in front of you and made a path a long the floor and snaked out of the door.

”The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Adrenaline surged through you. You galloped out of the room your were in. Hundreds of cages littered the void you rushed into. Pedestrians lie in pain, digging their fingers through their skin and tearing apart the flesh and bone in their abdomen. Exposing the gore of their chest cavity. Large meat hooks were suspended from a nonexistant ceiling.

You continued to gallop, sprinting down the path of words. You had no idea why you were doing any of this. You may have been running towards certain doom. However the new environment you found yourself in was not a very pleasant one to be in, and you didn’t dare think about what you would do just staying here listening to the cries of pain invading your ears.

The whole world was covered in shadows, the only assurance you were walking on a floor was rust and the path written in the red writing.

”The road to hell, the road to hell, the road to hell-”

Paths moved and twisted above and beside you. The area you were in was moving as though it were alive. Alive and in an extreme amount of pain.

You just wanted to leave. To get out.

The cages and twisting bodies within them became no more than a blur.

Your body betrayed you and moved on its own. Not that your mind was in any shape to control it. You could feel your psyche being ripped and torn into shreds.

Not a single lucid thought crossed your mind. Just images of the macabre and a fear of what may happen if you remained in this place longer than you wanted.

Pieces of wood and metal appeared in blinding speed along side you, fixating themselves into place as walls and a ceiling, forming a long corridor. At the end another door. Something was following you.

You could hear its heavy foot steps. You took a quick look behind you. Something was coming after you and gaining on you, FAST!

You picked up as much speed as you could.

Door

Door

Door

Door Door Door doordoordoordoordoor.

You crashed into it and out the other side of it. Recovering from the fall you kicked the door closed and pressed your back against it.

Silence. Finally.

Tears fell from your face, your chest heaved. Your throat burned from the aggressive attempts to suck in the air as you ran. You fell to the floor and absorbed the still quietness of the room you now found yourself in.

Something like an abandoned warehouse. Crumbling and stagnant. The only light shining through the windows were from the pale alien moon from above.

“M-moonrocks!”

You stumbled over your hooves. Cantering further into the large building.

“I must continue. I need to find a way out, I must find help.”

You moved beyond a grated door and into a larger area of the warehouse. It was enormous. You’d estimate as large as the Canterlot gardens. You stopped when you saw something in the middle of the room, in chains.

It groaned and attempted get up. You frantically scanned the area of the room you were in for an exit.

It placed a hand up to its head.

”Fuck me, that bastard can punch...”

Your heart dropped. That voice…

”What the? Chains? How in...where am-”

“Anonymous?”

You couldn’t help yourself. Despite what you had experienced, your heart still yearned to find and help the friend you were here for. The figure faced the direction you were in.

”Who the-”

”A-anonymous, is that you? Is it really you?”

The figure didn’t say anything for a minute. The moment of quiet allowed you to collect yourself after the jarring series of events that had just played out. You needed to gather yourself and focus now that you were out of what ever void you were in between here and the apartment.

The human figure lowered its hand to its side. Inspecting you to make sure you really were who it thought you were.

“Luna?”

~~

You are Anonymous. An epiphany had just befallen you.

You kept your hands over your head.

You weren’t sure what to believe any more. After reading your own journal and seeing what very well may be the truth caused you to question a lot more than what you were bargaining for.

The front door opened and that blindfolded version of yourself came in and slowly closed it behind him, shutting it with a sigh.

He appeared to have been disturbed by something. You stood up and threw the chair out from behind you.

“Hey!”

The other Anonymous looked up at you, and furrowed his brow.

”What?” The word spit like a snake’s venom.

“Luna. Where is she? And what did you do?”

The other Anon glared at you for several long seconds before answering.

”She is in the clinic next door...I informed her the only way to get here is through that place.”

“You WHAT! The clinic? Hey last time I was here, that was the place I came the closest to dying! And you told her to just go in there with that freaky mirror faced mother fucker?”

”That is partially the point. I just want her to leave, same as you. And you are still here.”

He maintained a calm voice. But he seemed to be getting at the end of his nerves.

“So you ARE trying to kill her! Why the fuck would you do that? She’s just trying to help, an-”

”I don’t exactly WANT to kill her I just want to be left ALONE!” He slammed his fist against the wall.

”I can’t bring myself to out right say it either! You know how hard it is for me...for us to do something like that! After what happened with Claire and seeing how hurt she was after we did nothing to help, or didn’t visit mom enough it...I don’t want others to get caught up in this. I can’t bring myself to just murder someone or something else...not even tell them to do it to themselves. Not after seeing someone as distressed and confused as her. All I can do is hope they aren’t as strong as they seem.” You could see the material of the blindfold become darker and moist, tears began to fall from underneath the flap.

He moved over to the table and leaned over against it.

”It’s not me...it’s not who I want to be.”

“Then what is this world then?”

He looked up at you for a moment and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

”What do you mean?”

“I read the journal.”

”Then you already know...you know who you are, what you were supposed to be.”

“Look, which one of us is the real Anon?”

He wouldn’t look up at you. He just buried his head into his sleeve.

He leaned into his arm for support against the table.

“Who are we? You apparently know something I don’t! So what’s going on!” You yelled.

”Stop FUCKING screaming! Look, I wrote it! Okay, I wrote the journal!” He lashed out at you, becoming more and more animated with every word.

”I needed a way to cope. To fight back. Write down what I felt I was going through. You were supposed to be how I did that! You were supposed to be what Dr. Hall called my “Ego”! But that FUCKING BOOK made it possible to look back at how shit life was, all of the horrible things I did! We didn’t make it!”

“Then why are we here? Why am I still here?”

”Being a pussy makes you do stupid things...things that are overly dramatic in the moment...I had to leave Anon. I had to get out, but I couldn’t let all the work I did go to waste.”

“What does that mean?”

Tears were flowing down the blindfolded Anon’s face at this point. His voice began to become interrupted by choked sobs.

”I...I w-was long gone. I k-knew what I had to do...but you? You went through too much, you were that f-fighter in me...I had to give you a happy end. Hoping you’d continue o-on in a world better than this.”

“In a world better than...”

You paused. He couldn’t really be meaning what he was saying...was he? A large metallic screeching could be heard from next door.

Oh lord no. Both of you clenched your heads as a massive headache threatened to split your skull open came on. She was in trouble.

“Luna! Fuck, that thing is going to get her! I have to go!”

”Hell no!”

The other Anonymous grabbed you by the hood.

”I can’t have you going back out there again! It will only hurt worse! He’ll show up!”

“H-hey! Let go! Who the fuck is “he”? I’m your ego or conscious or something right? We need to help her!”

”NO! No more!”

He pulled back, your ass had a very rough introduction to the ground. You reached up and pulled at the Real Anon’s hands.

“Hey! Achh! Let GO!”

He began dragging you away from the door and tackling you.

”LIKE HELL I’M ABOUT TO LET THAT HAPPEN!”

You struggled against him, desperately trying to free your hand.

”Damn it why couldn’t you just stay where you were? Did I not send you to a better place?”

“Because!”

You grunted as you freed your left arm.

“We needed the help!”

You swung at Real Anon’s jaw. Pain surged through your cheek bones. Both of you cried out in pain.

The Real Anon released his grip allowing you to scuddle across the floor away from him.

“Gahh! What the fuck?”

You rubbed your cheek.

”We are the same person retard.”

“Oh...yea.”

You got up and hurried to the door. Before you could pull it open, the other Anon reached around and grabbed your arm with both hands, pulling you back.

“Gah! Fuck!”

”Hey! Why can’t you just help me? Why do you have to make this longer than it has to be?” You grunted out as you squirmed.

The other Anon readjusted his grip and threw you across the room. You fell backwards and tripped over the coffee table, rolling over onto the floor. You grabbed your ankle in pain as you picked yourself up.

”You were NEVER supposed to come back!”

That was the last thing you heard before the other Anonymous’ fist filled your vision.

…

*Slam*

You awoke with a start. The loud slam of a closing door brought you back to consciousness.

”Ugh. Fuck.”

Your head fucking hurt.

You groaned. You moved up, trying to get to your feet. You placed a hand on your head.

”Fuck. That bastard can punch...”

You eyed the restraints tying keeping you on the floor.

”What the? Chains? How in...where am-”

”Anonymous?”

You turned towards the sudden voice calling out your name.

“Who the-”

You paused.

”A-anonymous, is that you? Is it really you?” Standing just a few yards away from you was your friend.

The equine in question had definitely seen better days. You couldn’t help but feel a heavy guilt as you saw her.

She was covered in bruises and medical dressings, blood stained her coat. Her usual flowing mane was like a rats nest and didn’t give off the same glow as before. What really hurt you were the blood shot eyes and the tears coming from them.

“Luna...”

”Y-yes?”

“Luna, is that you? Holy shit, are you okay?”

Relief practically beamed from her. She flew like a bullet toward you and pulled you into a bear hug.

Well...MARE hug would probably be more accurate.

She nuzzled and cried into your shoulder.

”By the maker! I knew it, I knew it HAD to be some demon taunting me! Tricking me into thinking you hated me.”

You wrapped your arms around her and returned the hug.

“Uh...yea. No, it’s me, it’s me Luna, I’m here, I’m okay. Luna, you look hurt! What happened!”

”I won’t talk about it! It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am finally here with you and I can help. I can help you and we can leave and put all of this behind us together.”

“Help me? Luna, you are seriously injured! Where did all this blood come from?”

She pulled you in tighter.

”No! I must help you! That’s why I am here.”

“Luna…” You broke the hug and brought her eyes to yours.

“Luna, you’re hurt. You can help me out of these chains but after that we need to find a way out and to the closes hospital. Okay?”

”B-but.”

“No, you’ve clearly been through enough. We can’t do this anymore, we need to-”

”NO! Anonymous, I WONT have you refuse my help again! I had thought I lost you!” She started to cry again.

”I thought I failed! After having to live through every dark problem you had to go through, it gave me the determination and drive to finally reach you and help. I thought I...I thought...you...*sniff* I witnessed you die Anon!”

Fuck. You could feel your heart sink to your stomach.

Did Real Anon really… Jesus Christ, why would he even…

You shook your head. It didn’t matter now. You’ve let Luna be hurt by your journal for long enough, but now you had to get out of these chains and get out of here.

“Luna, I’m fine! Look at me. I understand what you saw may have been...frightening, and I’m sorry you had to see that but help me out of these chains! Who knows what would happen if we stayed here!”

”Sorry? Why are YOU sorry, I was merely deceived! Anon, tell me that never happened, please tell me I saw only an illusion.”

“Luna, we need to go! I don’t want to talk about that right now.”

Luna looked so desperate and worried. Having to go through all of what she did and having to witness your...”escape” must have fucked with her in ways she’d need someone like Dr. Hill for.

”A-Anonymous, I don’t want to lose...*sniff* no, you are correct, I shall unshackle you. Please hold still.”

You held out your arms and let her fiddle with the chains. It took some work but with a little bit of magic she managed to undo the lock from within the chains and undo them. As the shackles fell you rubbed your wrists.

“Alright, good. Now, follow me we need to...Luna? What are you looking at-URK!”

A rope had found itself around your neck and pulled you back.

”Anonymous!”

Luna grabbed a hold of you and pulled you back. You grabbed at the rope and pulled at it, trying to keep it from cutting off air to your lungs. With a quick pull of the rope you were snatched from Luna’s grasp.

“Gah!”

You reached up and grabbed a hold of the rope pulling it towards you.

You glanced over to where the rope had come from. Behind a cement pillar in the shadows was...is that the Real Anon?

But no, you could see his eyes, not the rest of his face though. He wrapped the rope around the pillar and tightened it.

”RELEASE HIM FROM THOSE BINDINGS YOU FOWL BEAST!”

Luna picked her self up and ran past you. This other Anon dipped back behind the pillar just as Luna reached it. She glanced over and around it.

”He’s...He’s gone?”

From the shadow behind the next pillar, the other Anonymous seemed to materialize from no where and approach your friend.

“Luna! Behind you!”

Before she had a moment to react, the other Anonymous went up and kicked her into the side with unnatural force. You ran up to try and tackle him, but again he slipped into the shadows and was just gone.

Yes, INTO the shadows, you were sure of it this time.

“Hey! Come out here fuck stick!”

Luna coughed and stumbled to pick her self up.

“Fuck. Hold on! I’m- HRK!”

As you attempted to run over to Luna’s side, the rope tightened and you fell to the ground. You were like a dog tied to a leash with this rope around your throat.

You fumbled with your rope attempting to free yourself so you could aid your friend.

”Back away!” Luna cried. You pulled your attention toward her.

From the other side of the building the weird shadow version of yourself, who’s face was still unable to be seen, was walking up towards her. Brandishing a large fire axe.

Fuck.

You quickened your attempts to undo the knot. The mother fucker tied a good one in the rope. The sound of metal hitting stone reverberated through out room.

Luna had just managed to duck away from the swing of the Shadow Anon’s axe. Angered, he swung towards Luna’s neck again, and again Luna ducked out of the way.

Luna charged the assailant, throwing him and his axe to the floor. Luna began to crush his ribs and break his right arm.

The Shadow Anon grunted in pain but managed to reach out with his left arm and grab Luna by the throat. Squeezing his grip he brought her extremely close to his face.

Luna flailed and let out choked screams. What ever this Anon looked like didn’t seem to be pleasant. Apparently able to brush off the broken ribs and arm like it was nothing, he got up to his feet and threw the equine princess into a cement pillar head first.

Luna grunted and attempted to regain herself but cried out in pain and head to bring a hoof to her temple. The Shadow Anon walked over to his axe, grabbed it, and made his way towards her.

“Oh, hell no.” You wrestled with the knot on your rope for a few more seconds before finally managing to get undone.

“Fuck yes!”

Finally you got up and went in at a dead sprint towards the Shadow version of yourself. You jumped and grabbed him just as was about to bring the axe down. With a grunt, both of you fell to the floor. You wrestled with him and managed to pin both of his arms to the floor underneath your legs. You grabbed him by the collar and pulled him towards you, removing his hood in the process.

“What the fuck!”

This Anon looked like he had just come from the bad end of a belt sander. Chunks of flesh and muscle were missing, exposing the white bone underneath.

The eyelids were seemingly missing, as well as his lips, and his teeth were stained. Blood poured profusely from these wounds, making the area around the head and neck of the hoodie soaked in the crimson liquid. The shadow Anon wrestled to try and get his arms free. Before he could however, you formed a fist and punched him directly in the jaw.

Punching this Anon didn’t seem to hurt you for some reason. Which was good because not only were you giving him friendly and repeated introductions to your fist, but he also had his rib cage and right arm turned to dust by Luna.

A few good punches in made blood splatter from his mouth and made a few teeth fly from the gums.

The Shadow Anon managed to bend his legs up with impossible flexibility and wrap them around your chest. He thrust his legs back down, pulling you onto your back. He managed to free his left arm and pull you off of him. He wrapped both hands around your throat and begin to squeeze. You choked and gasped for air, reaching at his hands and trying to pry them off.

You began to get tunnel vision, your periphery being consumed in darkness. Your heart raced, your vision got hazier and hazier, your mind felt like it was about to give out. You were reaching to point of no return.

”LET! HIM! GO!”

Luna ran full force into the side of your would be executioner and sent all three of you into the ground. All of you let out a grunt as you flopped to the side of both Luna and the Shadow Anonymous.

The mare unleashed her fury onto him. It actually scared the ever living shit out of you.

Yes, more than anything you’ve seen in this book. You watched her lay into him with everything she had. You could feel the anger in her eyes behind the tears. All of the pent up stress and frustration from whatever she had been through in this journal finally coming through. She thrashed and tore, hell, she bit into his jugular and ripped off a piece of throat.

Whenever it looked like the Shadow you was going to over power her, she’d scream and dislocate one of his joints.

Finally, she finished off with a hard, swift, and gnarly buck to the cranium. Shadow Anon’s skull caved in, gray matter flew into different directions, the horrid sounds he made would have made you vomit if you weren’t already recovering from the brink of death.

With Shadow Anon’s skull caved in, Luna rushed over to check on you.

”Anonymous! Are you okay? Can you breath? How hurt are you?”

You had to take a few deep breaths before you could sputter out anything.

“I *cough* yea, I’m fine, I just feel light headed.”

”Are you sure? No new wounds? Nothing life threatening”

Life threatening? Is that was even applicable to you.

“I’m fine Luna, honest. I’m more worried about you.”

Luna sighed and embraced you in a firm hug.

”I am fine Anonymous. Now that the horrid deceiver who mislead me in my travels and tried to make me believe you had died is gone and away from you.”

Damn. You really have to break the news to her huh?

“I...well, about that...”

”It was horrible Anonymous...to see you like that. I wouldn’t know what to do if I had lost you. That was much too close...Anonymous, I must make a- AHH!”

“Luna!”

Luna had just been pulled away from the embrace. Shadow Anon pulling her by the hind legs. His face contorted and pulsated. New flesh and bone rebuilding the skull and brain that had been lost.

”I am not your demon bitch.”

He pinned Luna down on her back and broke her leg. Luna let out a horrible cry of pain that cut deep into you.

The Shadow Anon kicked her to the side and grabbed his axe again. You scrambled to your feet and got into a defensive position.

“What the fuck was that for! Who are you?”

The Shadow Anon began to croak.

”We all have those parts about us Anon. The things we don’t like about ourselves. They build up, and the damns gotta break sooner or later.”

The Shadow you swung his axe and you managed to duck under it. ”You’ve had your run, now its my turn.”

You tried to jump toward him and grab him by the collar but he managed to block you with the handle of the axe, which you managed to grab. You two pulled on it back and forth for a while until he pushed you over onto the ground.

He stepped onto your foot and using the broad end of the axe, gave your leg the same treatment he gave to Luna.

“GAHHH! FUCK!”

You could hear your shin fracture in two. You kicked him in the legs and managed to make him stumble off of you. You began began to back up as far and as fast as you could as he regained his footing. The Shadow you walked casually up and pressed his foot on your broken shin.

“GAH! Ahhh! FUCK!”

Shadow Anon raised the axe above his head. You flinched and raised your arm above your face.

Fuck. This was it. Left to die in the world you created for yourself. Why couldn’t you have done what Real Anonymous wanted and stayed in the new utopia he willed you to?

”Gah! Hrk!”

You dared to open one eye into the direction of your killer. He coughed out and grunted in pain. A long dark horn came out the front of his chest. He was thrashed off of you and dropped his axe in the process. Luna looked at you with a pleading urgency in her eyes.

”Anonymous! Quick!”

“Quick? Q-quick what!?”

”I do not know! But hurry and do SOMETHING!”

You looked down at the axe on the ground. You furrowed your brow and reached for it. You grabbed it and used it to help you to your feet. You accidentally placed too much pressure on your broken shin and you winced in pain.

“Ah! Fuck!”

”Anonymous hurry! His thrashing about will soon get the better of me.”

Luna stuck more of her horn through Shadow Anon’s chest. You limped over to be in front of him and got a good look at his face.

He stared back at you with loathsome intent.

”Even if you get over me here...I won’t be gone forever. Everyone has something like me in them.”

You spat in his face.

“Maybe. I have others to help me though.”

”You are a piece of shit.” He growled.

“Well,“ You swung the axe back and aimed at his head.

“fuck you too!”

You put all the strength you had remaining into behind this swing. The axe went clean through the still fresh wounds and buried itself in his skull. The world around you began to vibrate and seemingly glitched in and out existence. You fell to the floor and grabbed your head in pain. A horrible coarse static like from an old TV stabbed into your ears. You tried to look up to find Luna but the world was too chaotic to really see anything even 3 feet ahead of you.

Your head met the ground and you finally passed out.

~~~~