Anonymous in Nu-Questria

For about an hour or two, the ponies left you alone. You listened to them as they busied themselves with various things around their little camp, and you thought. You thought about what to do next. Eventually, the sun started to lower in the sky, and the forest was bathed in orange hues.

You considered trying to slip under the tent wall and sneak away through the woods, but where would you go from there? Did it even matter?

You thought about it as you rolled the bracelet in your fingers. It was made from a good length of colored twine. You could probably use it for a makeshift axe... perhaps chop down some trees and build a little cabin. Live out secluded in the woods where none of the ponies would find you.

You hear hoofsteps walking up to the tent door and you quickly slip the bracelet into your pocket. Another silhouette appears near Hitch’s. They whisper something quietly to each other.

“Uh... ahem”, Sunny says, “Anonymous, can I come in?”

You don’t respond.

“I brought soup.”

You consider telling her to fuck off. You consider throwing it in her face. But you remind yourself that you still need to fuel your physical body, even here.

“Come in.” you say in a low tone. Sunny walks into the tent holding a steaming wooden bowl filled with soup. The primitive monkey areas of your brain instantly focus in on the smell. Warm celery and potato stew. Unmistakable.

She sets the bowl in your lap. You clasp your hands around it carefully. She produces a wooden spoon and hands it to you as well.

You wait for her to leave, but she instead sits on the edge of your cot, avoiding eye contact. You realize she’s waiting to make sure you eat.

The hunger is getting too hard to ignore. You dip in the spoon and raise it to your lips. The warm liquid runs down your throat. It’s good.

You keep sipping the soup. Sunny slowly lifts her head up.

“You don’t know that she’s dead, by the way.” Sunny says.

You set your spoon into the bowl and look at her with a distant, faded glare.

“She could have been encased in stone, like you.” She says.

“No.” You respond. “If what you’re saying is true and magic really did fail, then Twilight Sparkle is most certainly dead.”

Sunny gives you an uncertain look. You sip loudly.

“How can you be so sure...?” She asks quietly.

You look at her again and smirk. “How can you be so sure I’m who you think I am?” You say, “I could be a changeling. I could be Grogar for all you know.”

“What? What are those?” Sunny asks, tilting her head.

You laugh under your breath. “God... you’re hopeless.”

Sunny narrows her eyes at you. She flicks her ears in indignation.

“No, you’re the one who’s hopeless. I’m starting to understand why they put you in that hunk of rock.” She says.

“Well, about that,” you say, raising your spoon up again, “I put myself in there voluntarily.” You say with a sip.

Sunny seems honestly surprised at this. “What?” she says.

You grit your teeth and exhale slowly.

“Look. I’ve had my fill of Equestria. It’s all kinda ‘been-there-done-that’ for me, you know?” You say with a sarcastic smile.

“I was fine being a regular human in the human world. That’s where I want to be.”

Sunny looks at you, studying your face for a hint of untruth. When she finds none, her ears fold back.

“Oh.” She says. “But, Twilight called you her friend in her notes. A lot of ponies were your friends.”

“Were.” You say.

“Why did you want to leave all of them behind?” Sunny asks.

You lean forward at her and narrow your eyes. “That is the question, isn’t it? Why would anypony want that?” You whisper with disdain.

You lean back and keep eating your soup, ignoring her gaze. She stomps a hoof. “Look, I know you’re having a hard time dealing with this, but we’re all really trying here.” She says. “If you really want to go back so bad you should help us uncover the magic spells that were lost!”

You shake your head slowly. “Why would you unpetrify someone without a backup plan?” You sigh. “Sorry, Sunny. I don’t have a lot of confidence in your little team.”

She fumes for a moment. Then she lets out a slow sigh. “Listen, you must know something that can help us...” she says. “All I ask is that you point us in the right direction. That’s all. Then we’ll leave you alone. We can take you to a safe place, in one of our towns. Or you can just go wherever. You don’t have to see us again.”

You mull it over as you put the soup bowl to your lips. You drink the remains of your meal and slowly set the bowl down.

“Fine. Fair enough.” You say. “Tell me what you know so far.”

Sunny spent the rest of the evening going over her research with you. She splayed out all her notes, maps and charts on a wooden picnic table near their campfire. You both looked over them and shared your knowledge. The other ponies performed various tasks around the camp, but would often tilt their ears and listen in as you talked.

The ponies only knew of three pony towns. Maretime Bay, Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood. The rest of the continent was a blank. From scrutinizing their maps and cross-referencing it with your memory, the best you can figure is that you’re currently somewhere near near the east coast of the continent. About a hundred or so miles inland from where Baltimare used to be.

Judging by the forest surrounding you, it seems close to the Everfree. Yet you can’t really be sure. The lands and forests can change a lot in a few thousand years. You might still be nowhere near Canterlot.

You explained the castles of the princesses. The towering star of Twilight’s castle. The alabaster spires of Canterlot. The snowflake design of the Crystal Empire. You drew in rough circles where you thought the castles were located, assuming they even still existed.

Sunny gasped and stared wide-eyed as she looked over the marks on the map. She showed the other ponies, and every one of them was elated.

Thankfully, Sunny did not press any further into the details of your past life. She instead decided to show you the treasures they had found from the ancient world instead.

Part of an old, rusted shop sign with an illegible surface. A few decaying old pony shoes. Random shards of non-magical crystal. A marble. A pie tin with the bottom eaten through. Metal hinges and the rusted bones of a disintegrated carriage.

None of it provided any clues. Just generic bits of pony trash.

You turn over one of the shards of purple crystal in your hands. It looks sort of like the material from the Castle of Friendship. It probably blew up as a result of some villain attack. Maybe that even happened several times. Who knows.

“So your towns are all segregated by race, huh?” You ask Sunny.

Sunny looks up at you and nods. “Well, yes, but after we showed everypony that magic and friendship are real, they’ve began to open up a lot more.” She explains.

You think about what it would be like to just stroll in unaccompanied. The panic that would set in would be pretty funny.

“All the ponies are starting to work together again. It’s great, but it’s... not exactly enough.” Sunny says. “There’s still plenty of ponies out there that are afraid. Some want to return to the old ways. That’s why we’re out here. We need to learn from our past so that we can keep the spark of friendship alive.”

“Uh huh,” you say as you put the crystal down. “So, how did you manage to unpetrify me any way?”

“Oh, uh...” Sunny says hesitantly before looking to the side at Izzy, who had taken a seat next to her.

Izzy’s face lights up and she taps the table. “Ooooh, tell him about the crystals!” She says with a smile.

Sunny hesitates, smiling nervously. “Well, um...” she turns to you and says, “I don’t want to burden you any more than we have, and these crystals are just... we think Twilight might have made them.”

You shrug. “Just tell me.”

Sunny bites her lip and looks to the side. She then reaches into her teal bookbag and pulls out a shining diamond the size of her entire hoof. She rests it carefully on the table, and it glints spectacularly in the firelight.

“This is the Earth Pony Crystal. There’s three in all. One for the unicorns, and one for the pegasi.” She explains.

Izzy pulls out a violet horn-shaped crystal from her mane and taps it to her own horn with a smile. You assume that’s the one for the unicorns.

“Let me guess, the pegasus one is shaped like wings.” You say. You glance over at the two pegasi who are currently seated around the campfire with Hitch.

“Yes! How’d you know?” Sunny asks.

“I’ve just seen a lot of magic macguffins in my day...” You sigh, “So you used them to open my casket?”

“Yeah!” Izzy says, “It’s kinda funny how it happened actually, we found it and we were like, ‘ooh~, this big crystal sarcophagus must be important, huh’ but mostly we were just really happy to have found something so cool after all this time, so we put our hooves together to celebrate!”

“Then,” she says and lets her eyes go wide, “Each one of the crystals started to glow... We took them out... and they snapped together like wa-SHAZAM!” She flails a hoof dramatically.

“Then the casket started to glow too! It was all wowowowow~ and the crystals were all wowowowow~” She says, wiggling her hooves in waves.

“And then ba-zam!” She says, “The crystals shot out this huge laser beam and it hit the casket and it got really really bright and then... KA-ZAP!” She shouts, her hooves raised to the air.

Her expression calms and she leans her head on her hoof casually. “Nothing happened!” She says.

You blink.

“Then, TA-DAH! The crystal sarcophagus shattered into a million pieces! Anon was freed! It was very sparkly,” She says with a cheeky smile.

“Right,” you say, rubbing your head, “So the head injury was from...?”

“Um, well...” Sunny chimes in, “The ruins we found you in had a just a... a slight tilt to them.”

You cross your arms.

“You slid off your stone platform and tumbled down a gully.” She explains, wincing a little. “The tree branches helped slow you down a little at least...”

Sunny folds her ears back and looks away.

You shake your head and sigh. “Yeah, do I even need to say it?” You ask.

Sunny and Izzy look despondent. Turns out you don’t need to. You sigh and rub your face. The bandage on your head moves around and you feel the dull ache underneath.

“Alright, so here’s what’s going to happen.” You say, tenting your fingers. “I’m going to sleep. If I don’t wake up tomorrow on Earth, in my real bed, in my real house, you are all going to show me the ruins where you found me. Then, you’re going to leave me there. Alone.”

“What? But what ab-” Izzy starts to say, but you hold up a finger.

“Ah-tut-tut-tut. No, blue Pinkie Pie. No.” You say. Izzy scowls.

Sunny sighs and nods. “Okay, Anon... if that’s what you want.” She says sadly.

“Great. Peachy keen.” You say and stand up from the table.

You walk past the campfire. Hitch notices you leaving and pipes up. “Hey! Uh...” He starts trotting alongside you.

“You know, the forest has gotten a lot more dangerous ever since magic returned,” he says, “There’s a lot of dangerous critters out there!”

You keep walking and ignore him. He stops and asks, “Can I at least change that bandage?”

You tug at the gauze and then quickly yank it off your head. You throw it into the fire and walk inside the medical tent.