Hearts and Hooves Day in Ponyville was going about as well as any pony could expect. Couples were cuddling in the park, stallions were rushing around in a panic trying to find last-minute gifts, and the CMC were up to something that would probably end in disaster, all things Rainbow Dash wanted no part of. As she floated lazily through the sky, having already cleared the clouds for the day, Rainbow couldn’t help but scoff at the mushy antics of the ponies below.
No way a cool pony like herself would do such a thing, or creature for that matter, surely Anon was already tired of the day of sickeningly sweet lovey dovey … things.
It had been 10 months since the ‘human’ stumbled out of the Everfree, and sure, they’d gotten off to a rocky start, but it was totally his fault for being too tall and Discord-looking. Fortunately, Twilight arrived and cast a spell to make his weird growls and barks into proper Equish, which was a shame since Rainbow was totally about to get the upper hoof on the human.
Ever the Egghead, Twilight deduced that Anon appeared in the Everfree around the time Discord was causing chaos throughout Equestria, but despite Discord's return to stone, Anon wasn’t returned to his home, so for the last 10 months, the surprisingly awesome human moved into to Twilights library, while the unicorn tried to find a way to return him home.
The library which currently had a pillar of black smoke rising from it.
Without thinking, Rainbow’s lazy flight turned into a steep dive, bringing her speeding down towards the library. Within moments, the library had become significantly larger, and the currently closed window she intended to make her entry through was almost upon her, in what was secretly a well-practised manoeuvre, Rainbow performed a half roll, threw out a back hoof which would break the window, then she’d open her wings to reduce her speed and perform another roll, resulting in a super cool landing where she could strike a totally awesome pose. Or at least that was the plan, somewhere between the first roll and kicking in the window, Rainbow lost control, careened through the window, landed on her back and skidded across the library’s floor. Rainbow assumed she’d crashed into what was probably a wall, an avalanche of books that rained onto her corrected that thought.
“Anon? Twilight? Where are you?” Called Rainbow as she shook herself free from glass and books.
“Dash?” Exclaimed Twilight, “What the buck are you doing?”
“I saw smoke, I came to save you both! Where’s the … fire.” Rainbow trailed off, as she saw that next to the angry unicorn, was a container burning supplies and books.
“Well Dash, the fire is right here, in this disposal bin, safely destroying my research. No rescue needed thank you very much”
“Oh, err, right, hehe.” Rainbow nervously laughed, “Wait, you're burning your research?”
”Oh yes, every bucking piece, 10 months of work going up in smoke, but hey, at least I get to go buy a new window now.”
Rainbow looked around the library, glass shards littered the room, not just the window she’d exploded on her entry, along with some metal shards and melted floorboards near the unicorn's workstation. “Eh-he, sorry about that Twi, but isn’t that the nerd stuff to get Anon home?”
“WAS the nerd stuff to get that hairless ape home, before he broke my kaleidoscope, cos you know what Rainbow, it’d be easier to start again than fix the scope and re-calibrate it to the data! And you know what he said to that? Do you Rainbow?”
“Errr, I’m sorry?” Said Rainbow, as she looked around for the human.
“YES, he said sorry then said that I shouldn’t restart, that I should just leave it.”
It was at this point Rainbow realised something she should have checked first, as her hackles rose with instinctual fear. Looking towards the unicorn, Rainbow noticed things she should have seen right away. Twilight's hair was a mess, sticking out at abnormal angles, her horn had whisps of smoke rising from it, the result of casting a powerful spell if Rainbow's memory was correct, but worst of all, Twilight's left eye was twitching periodically.
Nervously, Rainbow asked, “Hey Twi, where-” Rainbow gulped, “Where’s Anon?” She knew Twilight had a few options for which planet Anon's home could be, surely she hadn’t sent him home, right? He couldn’t be gone, not before getting to say goodbye.
Twilight snorted, “Gone, out of sight, out of Ponyville, if he doesn’t want my help, he can go ask Princess Celestia for it instead.”
“So you, teleported him, all the way, to Canterlot?” Said Rainbow hopefully.
“Yeah,” Snorted Twilight “Hopefully I dropped him in a fountain.”
“Kay, thanks, bye!” Cried Rainbow, as she dived out the window she came in from.
Soaring through the Equestrian Skies, Rainbow Dash made good on the latter half of her name while her head swirled with Anon-themed thoughts.
Dash loved each of her friends, sure, Applejack was basically an Earth Pony version of herself, and Pinkie was a blast to be around, it's just some of her friends were closer than others. Like when it came to Anon, he was like her partner in crime, when they’d compete against one another at sports, or cheat against one another depending on how you viewed abusing racial advantages to win, she’d forget about the competition and focus on just trying to one-up Anon. They’d even come up with pranks together, Anon managed to make the perfect prank to use on Fluttershy! The look on her filly hood friend's face after being buried by a cupboard's worth of plush rabbits had been a good investment in bits.
But more than anything else, the human just seemed to get Dash, they’d be able to hang out and do nothing, or on occasion, they’d even open up about themselves over a cider, which is why Rainbow knew that back on his home planet, Anon had left behind a fair few friends, his parents and a sister. He’d made Dash promise not to tell the others, since while he missed them, he didn’t want to pressure Twilight into finding him a way home, in his words he was “imposing on her enough.” And now he’d told Twilight to give up, he’d be stuck in Equestria forever, never able to go home, and it sickened Rainbow that a part of her was happy about that, what kind of friend was she for being happy that her friend would never go home?
Fortunately, the walls of Canterlot were coming into view, in the upper streets Rainbow could see tiny colourful dots of ponies walking around, it wouldn’t be long now until she’d be in the city proper, but, where would Anon be? The city wasn’t completely unknown to the human, Rainbow had been with the other Elements when he’d been brought to the princesses 10 months ago, and she’d dragged him to a few Wonderbolt shows since, but to her knowledge, he’d never been in the city alone.
As she finally touched down in one of the city's many plazas, Rainbow took some time to gather her bearings, and more importantly, see if any human-related chaos was happening. While Anon was awesome, and would never hurt a foal, she had to admit his first impression could spook ponies, so the lack of stampeding ponies could only be a good thing, providing Twilight managed to send him to Canterlot of course.
“If I was a human, where would I be?” Rainbow asked herself as she looked around. Fortunately, her attention was drawn by a hoof waving in her direction.
“Hello Rainbow Dash, what brings you to Canterlot?”
“Oh, hey Bonbon, it’s a funny story really, I don’t suppose you’ve seen Anon around?”
“Oh sure, he was up in the Royal District a few hours ago, think he was heading to the castle.”
“Awesome thanks.” Said Rainbow, as she turned to leave she realised it’d be rude to simply dash off. “Oh, err, what brings you to Canterlot Bonbon?”
The earth pony froze mid-trot as she was leaving, and slowly turned to face Rainbow, after a few seconds of silence she finally spoke up, “I’m, erm, getting supplies?”
“Oh cool, well thanks again.” Rainbow took off with a mighty flap of her wings, leaving the nervous ‘sweet maker’ by herself.
Flying over to the Castle was simple enough, especially since this late in the day, most of the weather ponies would have ended their shifts and the other pegasi would be settling down for their evening meals, so before she knew it, Rainbow was once again touching down, but this time in front of the Castle gates. As she approached the guards' pony on duty, the stallion stood to attention and called, “Element Bearer Rainbow Dash Ma’am, we’ve been told to expect your arrival, and have been instructed to send you to the castle gardens.
“Wait, you were expecting me?” Rainbow asked.
“Yes Ma’am, we have been advised to expect Lady Sparkle, yourself, or the other Element bearers to arrive.”
“Oh cool, thanks,” Rainbow said as she trotted into the Castle grounds.
It didn’t take long for her to find the gardens, after all, they were nearly impossible to miss, just walk around the castle enough and boom, flowers, statues and a human.
Wait, a Human !?
“ANON!” Dash cried, her wings springing to life, launching her into the air for the moments it took her to close the distance, before she dropped to the floor, sliding across the gravel, and coming to a, relatively graceful stop just behind her two-legged friend, who was standing underneath the statue of Discord. If the human heard Dash, he didn’t show it, he just stood there, still as the statue in front of him.
“Oh hey Anon, err, fancy meeting you here, I was, err, just flying around and saw you, I wasn’t looking for you or nothing, but, I heard something happened at Twi’s, and she’d destroyed her research, so err, are you cool?” Dash cringed, could she have sounded any less awesome? If Rarity had heard that the unicorn would have probably fainted just from witnessing it.
The silence between them was almost unbearable, with each second seeming to stretch for an eternity, with nothing but the wind and the far-off chatter of Canterlot, fortunately, one eternity later, or five seconds to anyone else, Anon took a deep breath and turned round.
As Dash looked up at her alien friend, she saw that his usually bright green eyes were now bloodshot.
“Hey, Dash, not overly cool today I'm afraid, how much did hear from Twilight?”
“Not much, I crashed in, she was burning some things and looked like she’d trying to understand Pinkie again, all manic and crazy, said you broke something, a kelo … thing.”
“Kaleidoscope, I broke her kaleidoscope.”
“Yeah, and then something about her stopping her research?”
”Well, let's go somewhere else, I’ve spent as much time with Discord as I want to.” Said Anon, as he began walking further into the garden.
“So, basically, I asked Twilight to stop her research, but she didn’t listen, which is when I may have taken a bit of a drastic measure, but don’t worry, Celestia agreed to replace it.”
Trotting up to his side and keeping pace, Dash looked up at the human “Stop working? But Twi’s trying to get you home! Why would you want her to stop!”
Anon looked away, bringing a sleeve to his eyes, “W-well, I was getting a bit concerned about a few things, so I went to check with the princesses about Twilight’s most recent findings. Turns out Celestia has been holding Luna back from speaking to me.”
“Eh? Why would Princess Celestria do that?”
“Because Luna already knew what Twilight found, but 9 months ago. They found my home, Dash.”
They found his home! Her heart sank, shouldn’t she be happy for him? But then was this goodbye? They wouldn’t even get to just chill out with some pizza again! This was too soon right?
‘Focus Dash, you’re the Element of Loyalty, forget all that and focus on Anon.’ Dash thought to herself. “That's great, right? You can go home!”
“They found it Dash, along with around a hundred near-identical versions of my home where I may either never have existed, still live there, or be populated by dinosaurs instead of humans.”
“Over, a hundred? But that's still good right?”
“Yeah, if the worlds were linked.”
“What do you mean linked?”
“I’m not exactly sure about the specifics, but Luna said that some worlds are connected, like imagine if there was a world where everything was very close to this one, so much so it might even have you and your friends there, but you were all cats and dogs instead of ponies. That would be a linked world, but my world isn’t like that.”
“And that’s bad?”
“If my world was linked to Equestria, these last ten months might be ten seconds there or 10 years.”
“Oh, you said your world wasn’t linked to Equestria though, is it worse?”
“Yeah, it means that from here, Twilight could return me to any point in time, There's a chance she’d even send me back to a point when there weren’t any humans on my planet.”
“But that can’t be right, can it? Princess Celestia stopped Princess Luna from telling you that, so there has to be a chance, and she’s been gone for over a thousand years, maybe Twi could work something out those old unicorns couldn’t?”
“Yeah, she probably could.”
“Then let's get back to Ponyville! We’ll give her a new keli-scope thing, get her a new book and she can get right to it!”
“And let Twilight spend the next few years trying to get me home?”
Dash froze, it’d been ten months, and she’d assumed Twilight was close, that's what she’d kept saying wasn’t it? ‘Something something egghead breakthrough’ she’d say all happy and bouncy, then get right back to work.
“Dash, by the time Twilight could send me back, I'd probably be middle-aged, I’d have forgotten the faces of my family, the names of my friends. I wouldn’t remember how to do my job, where I lived or how to even access my bi … money from the bank.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, that by the time Twilight could send me back, it wouldn’t be my home anymore.”
Wouldn’t be his home? If Dash was separated from her friends, Equestria, and even her parents for that long, forced to live a new life, then told years later she could go back, she’d leap at the chance to go home, wouldn’t she? So as she thought, the two walked in silence through the castle garden, until eventually, their path ended. They found themselves in a clearing, with a cliff overlooking a side of the Canterhorn that was away from the city, and which currently provided the pair with a stunning of Celestia's setting sun, had it gotten late already?
“So, w-what are you planning to do?” Stuttered Dash, several thoughts flicked through her mind, was he going to pick one world at random and hope for the best? He wasn’t thinking of - She wouldn’t allow herself to finish that thought.
“I think I'm going to settle here,” Anon said with a weary smile.
“Here?”
“Eeyup.” Said Anon with a playful grin. “Literally, I’ve got a business idea, going to ask Lu-Princess Luna for a loan, and I’ll be making a home here in Canterlot.”
“Not Ponyville?” Dash clapped a hoof to her mouth, in a vain hope of catching the words before they left her throat, she wanted to say them, she didn’t even know why, but if Anon was staying in Equestria, that meant he wasn’t going to leave, but if he was in Canterlot …
Anon sat down near the edge and deeply breathed in the fresh mountain air.
“Yeah, I’m thinking of opening a late-night Coffee bar, targeting Thestrals, Night Guard, and ponies who want a quiet atmosphere rather than a noisy nightclub. Not much late-night business in Canterlot, but there's a growing demand for it, apparently having a princess of the night encourages that, also I doubt Twilight will let me back into the Treebary for a while, so Princess Luna owes me a place. I’m hoping that won’t be too far for the fastest flier in Equestria to travel to visit a friend now and then right?”
She was already invited! A smile came unbidden to Dash’s face, a big goody smile. She wouldn’t be losing Anon! So with a new joy in her trot, she sat down next to Anon.
“Hell yeah! Just try and stop me.”
“I don’t plan to, just don’t drink all my merchandise, I’m stocking hard cider and I know what you’re like with that stuff.”
He wasn’t going to leave! Dash could barely believe it. While she never admitted it to any pony, or human, every time Twilight made a discovery, or a breakthrough, a cold sweat came over her. She didn’t want Anon to leave Equestria, to leave her, he’d be able to make some new friends, would he be looking for a somepony?
…
“Hey, Anon?”
“Yeah, Dash?”
“Want to get some Pizza?”
“Course, haven’t eaten since breakfast, it's on you till I can speak to a princess though, my bits are still in Ponyville, but I promise I’ll pay you back.”
“No worries, I have enough, but what if it was me taking you out…”
‘Wait, what are you doing!?’
“And I paid”
‘Nononono’
“For us?”
‘Stupid no why, this isn’t even remotely the time for asking him on a -’
“As in … A date?” Asked Anon.
“Yeah, or not, if you’d rather not,” Dash said she could feel her muzzle burning, part of her wanted to take off and hide in a high-up cloud where Anon would never find her, but suddenly, she felt a strong arm wrap around her back, and pull her into a half hug.
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure if you’d be interested in a human like me, and while I’m not sure if a human dating a pony would work, maybe we could work that out together? Just promise the next dates on me alright?”
Dash felt herself melting into Anon, as she returned his hug with a wing.
“Sure, it's a date.”
The two sat together, enjoying the closeness for a few while, when Rainbow broke the silence.
"Hey Anon,"
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell Rarity I asked you out on hearts and hooves day."
