Potted Plant

Anon and Wallflower stand silently for what feels like an eternity. She slowly turns her head to look at him, but he doesn’t notice. In fact, his gaze doesn’t turn away from the garden. His expression is cold and distant. His mouth is a straight line across his face, and his eyes lack the color and brightness she’s come to know from them. Even amidst the quiet serenity of the garden, she can’t even hear him breathing.

Every single crop, every single vegetable has been torn from the ground. There are a few loose eggplants and zucchinis scattered across what was once the garden, sure, but they’ve already been plucked from the soil and ruined by the animals. The only bits of color left in the garden are the lemons hanging from the lemon tree and, miraculously, the roses.

“L-look! Your roses!” Wallflower rushes across the garden and stands next to the bush. Sure enough, they’re just as bright and beautiful as they were in the morning. “They’re okay!”

For a long moment, Anon doesn’t move a muscle. However, all at once, the light returns to his eyes as if a switch had been flipped. He looks up at her, and though the sorrow is still evident on his face, a tiny smile begins to creep along his lips.

“Huh. So they are.” With a slow, exhausted gait, he trudges across the garden and stands next to Wallflower. He gently brings a hand to one of the flowers and lifts it closer to his face, taking in the lovely scent of the little bit of crimson beauty he brought into the world. “So they are.”

“...Are you okay?”

“Heartbroken,” he responds matter-of-factly. “Those vegetables were my… th-they were going to make a lot of ponies happy.”

“Ugh, and it’s those same ponies that ruined them.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s not hard to close the gate. You remind everyone that comes here. You don’t ask a lot of anyone, and it’s not a difficult thing to do.”

“...” After failing to respond for some time, Anon clears his throat. “I-I don’t want to be mad at anyone.” With a loud popping sound, Anon straightens out his back and lifts his arms above his head. “I’ll just have to start again tomorrow. N-no biggie.”

“‘No biggie?’ Anon, how can you not be mad?”

“It’s just not worth it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I… I have a lot riding on my image, Wallflower. I can’t afford to get mad at anypony.”

“What are you talking about?! They ruined your garden!”

“And I have to greet them with a smile anyway.” Wallflower’s eyes widen as she sees the dark, serious expression on his face. “That’s just how it is for… for someone like me.”

“Anon, please. Unlike me, you haven’t made a piece of art for me to peek into your psyche. I don’t know what it is you’re going through, but you know you can tell me, right?”

Anon glances away, his gaze falling to the ruined crops below. He stutters for a moment before finally closing his eyes and sighing.

“How about we talk over a glass of lemonade?”

“I’d like that,” she warmly replies, giving him the most genuine smile she can muster.

“You have a really nice house,” Wallflower comments as Anon pours her a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade. He takes a seat across from her at his kitchen table. She looks around the space, making note of how few possessions he owns. There is furniture and a stocked kitchen, sure, but there is almost nothing that denotes the space as “his.” “But I get the impression you don’t spend much time in here.”

“That’s what the garden is for,” he chuckles as he takes a sip. It's the perfect mix of sweet and sour, thanks in no small part to the lemons the two of them picked together. “Anyway, I’m sorry to say that my story isn’t very long, and it isn’t very glamorous.”

“I’d like to hear it anyway. If you’re willing to share, of course.”

“No, no, you deserve to hear it.” Anon stares at the table as he collects his thoughts. After some time, he takes a deep breath. “Did you see the papers when I first arrived in Equestria?”

“I don’t really keep up with the news.”

“Well, that explains it. Hmhm.” He takes another sip before continuing. “To this day, I still don’t know how I got here. Just woke up in a small crater not far from Miss Fluttershy’s cottage one day. It really freaked out everyone in town, and I can’t say I blame them. They’d never seen a human before, and I’d never seen ponies like you before. We were all panicking a little bit, and my fearful demeanor made everyone think I was dangerous. Long story short, the Royal Guard got a hold of me before too long.”

“You were arrested?!”

“Yup. Thankfully, the princesses were kind to me. Confused, but kind. They, along with Miss Sparkle, tried to figure out how I got here and how to send me home.”

“And?”

“They still don’t know how I got here, and they’re even less convinced they can send me back to where I came from.”

“That’s horrible!”

“I’ve… I’ve tried to make peace with it. I left a lot behind, after all.” He scratches the back of his head and lets out an obviously forced laugh. “It’s not easy to leave behind all of your friends and family. Or your old garden!”

“Anon, you don’t have to act like you’re okay if this story hurts to tell.”

“Well, it’s not very long.” Composing himself, he continues. “They gave me a house and a job tending to some of the local flora. Just enough to sustain myself, you know? I didn’t want to seem ungrateful and I definitely didn’t see any other options, so I just went with it. That’s how I ended up here, specifically.”

“But that doesn’t explain your behavior.”

“That was due to the locals. Now don’t get me wrong, not everyone in town was bad to me. But when all of the headlines say things like ‘Monster Appears in Ponyville!’ or ‘Aliens Confirmed Real - Are YOU Safe?!’ it doesn't really inspire confidence. Most ponies avoided me, or they looked at me like I was going to eat them.”

“They didn’t even get to know you?”

“Nah. Why get to know the tall, freaky, fur-less monster that the princesses decided should be your neighbor? They didn’t even know my name, but they had to call me something, so–”

“They started calling you Anon.”

“Bingo.” He lets out a long, deep sigh before taking another swig of his lemonade. “I wasn’t super popular back home, but being isolated like that was new to me. I hated it.”

“And that’s why you started helping everypony?”

“Every single day. I’d wake up, tend to my garden, make my rounds through town watering flowers and the like, and if I saw somepony doing… well, anything? I’d offer to help. It took a long time for them to actually accept my help, but by the time Miss Oldbag was screaming at me to ‘walk faster’ as I was carrying her groceries for her, I think everyone finally realized that I wasn’t going to eat them or anything.”

“And that’s how you were when we met.”

“Exactly! Making my garden open to the public was a part of that, too. I was happy to finally be accepted. That was all I needed.”

“Was.”

“Hm?”

“It ‘was’ all you needed. Having second thoughts?”

“...”

“You know, you sound a lot like me.”

“I do?”

“Dude, it was only a few hours ago that you were telling me how I’m not worthless. The same is true for you, you know. You don’t owe anyone anything.”

“Well, that’s very kind of you, but–”

“I like you, Douglas.”

He freezes.

“Huh?”

“That’s your name, right? I like you for you. You’re always so nice to me, and you want to talk to me, and you actually tried to understand me. That’s more than I can say for anyone else.” She blushes as she brushes a bit of her mane out of her face. “Besides, I think Douglas suits you.”

“I… I haven’t heard that name come from anyone else’s mouth in a long time.”

“You were too afraid to correct anyone, so you let their stories about you become true.”

“I… yeah.”

“I’m not gonna tell you how to live, but I think you’ve earned some time to be you, not the person you think everyone wants you to be.”

“I’m not sure I can tell the difference anymore.”

“Well, try to answer this: What do you want?”

“I–”

“I don’t mean like helping ponies, or making anyone happy. What do you want to do that will make YOU happy?”

Douglas falls silent once more. His brow furrows as he gets lost in thought. He tries to sip at his lemonade, but his lips only meet ice in the bottom of an empty glass. After putting it back down, he nods to himself. His eyes open fully, and Wallflower notices that the bright enthusiasm she’s come to know from him has returned.

“I want to plant flowers. Lots of them.”

“There ya go.” With a smile and a nod, she stands from her seat and stretches her back. “Why don’t you meet me at the market first thing tomorrow?”

“The market? Why?”

“So we can buy you some flower seeds, duh! We’ve got a long day of planting ahead of us tomorrow!”

“Wallflower, I couldn’t ask you to do that for me.”

“You’ve been doing things non-stop for ponies that don’t actually care. Please, let me help you. As your friend.”

“...My friend. Right.” Slowly, a smile spreads across Douglas’s face. He can’t stop himself from laughing as a blush makes its way to his cheeks. “Right! Yeah, that sounds like fun!”

“I’ll see you there.” She nods and makes her way out the back door, but freezes just before making it outside. Swiftly, she turns around, rushes to Douglas’s seat, and wraps her arms around him in a tight hug. Then, just as quickly, she rushes back to the door. “And thanks for the lemonade!”

“Any time!”

She waves as she exits the house and makes her way out of the garden, the smile never leaving her face as she closes the gate behind her.