Different: A Young Anon Story (Part 3)

Images: http://imgur.com/a/DhX8d#0

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Wx35sNqdM

 

>An adventure.

>A daring journey to places unknown!

>The danger of the world surrounding you, and the only things to keep you safe were a blanket, your new friend, and a stick you found earlier.

>Yes indeed, the adventure was certainly starting. It's been only two days since you ran away from the orphanage in Fillydelphia, but you already felt like your freedom was welcomed.

>No more cold nights in a broken down room on a bare mattress. No more moldy carrots and peas!

>You were especially excited about the "no carrots" part.

>Best of all, you had a friend to keep you company as you wandered the land... well, wandered the one road to Manehatten, at least.

>Chrysalis was her name, and you could already tell you were going to be really, really good friends with her. She was nice, and funny, and cool looking wings! You liked her wings.

>There was also the whole "changeling" thing, but she was the first you had ever met, and you liked her.

>Sure, she did that whole... love... eating... thing, but hey! It didn't hurt you!... you think. You have two little marks on your neck, and you were exhausted after she drained your emotions, but now you felt fine.

>So fine, that at the moment you were finishing up a story you made up for Chrysalis to pass the time.

 

“And then I would stand up to the mighty beast, swing my sword about bravely and say, “Your reign of terror is over, mighty dragon! Release the fair maiden!” Of course the dragon is cunning and conniving, so he would only pretend to surrender.”

>”But why would he do that?” Chrysalis asks you. “He’s a big, vicious dragon! He doesn't need to be sneaky or anything like that. He could just gobble you up right then and there!”

“He can’t, because I have bested his brothers and sisters. The dragon knows I’m a strong, powerful knight, and so he won’t risk just gobbling me up all willy-nilly! He’s going to try and trick me, but even I’m too smart to fall for his evil schemes.”

>You emphasize your righteousness by jumping on top of a nearby rock as you swing a stick around, pretending to be at battle with a mighty, fire breathing dragon.

>Chrysalis laughs at you though, shaking her head. “What are you doing?” she asks, watching you flail your branch at the air.

“I’m fighting the dragon of course. What does it look like?”

>For extra emphasis, you arc the twig over your head and bring your “sword” down on the head of the imaginary dragon. Chrysalis tuts, shaking her head still. “No no no, you’re going about this all wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

>”Where’s your shield?”

“What?”

>”You know, a shield! Every knight should have a shield, Anonymous.”

>You pout at her a bit as you jump off your rock. She giggles at the puffed up nature of your cheeks, and gives them a poke.

 

“Stop that, knights don’t get their cheeks poked by the damsels” you say to her, rubbing your face.

>”But you’re not a knight, silly. You don’t even have a shield, and all strong, valiant knights should have a shield. It’s the rules.”

“Rules?” you ask. “What rules? There are rules to being a knight?”

>”Of course!” Chrysalis says, stamping a tiny, holed hoof on the ground. “You can’t expect to go around the world, doing knighty things without the proper tools, Anonymous. Then you’d just be a fake knight. Nopony likes a fake knight.”

>Your cheeks are puffed to the limit now. It was embarrassing and a bit frustrating to have a girl say you were doing all the wrong things when it came to being a valiant hero.

>Seems Chrysalis doesn’t get the gist of your pouting, as she giggles once more and boops your nose with a hoof.

>”Boop!”

“Stop that. Knights don’t get booped.”

>”Nooo, but fake knights get booped all the time! Boop!” she titters out as she boops you once more.

“What, is that another rule for knights or something?”

>”Hmmm… yep! Sure is!”

“Now I know you’re just makin’ up all these crummy knight rules.” You cross your arms and face her, smirking. “Now I don’t even want to be a knight.”

>”Oh? And what do you want to be now?” she asks as the two of you begin to start back up on your walk.

 

>Bringing a finger to your chin, you pause and think for a bit. There were lots of things to be, after all, and you had to pick out a good one. It HAD to be one that involved swords though. You liked them, and you still had your stick, after all. No sense in choosing something if you didn’t have a reason to wave around the stick.

“Well… if I can’t be a knight and save the day, then I’ll be a scurvy pirate, roaming the seas and plundering other ships!” you declare, thrusting the tree branch into the air above your head.

>”Ooooh, I like that idea a lot better than the knight one!” Chrysalis squeaks out, smiling her toothy, fanged smile. “That way I get to be a pirate too instead of a silly old “damsel in distress.” I don’t really like being the damsel.”

>Chrysalis blinks confusedly as soon as you start laughing at her though. “What?” she asks, “What’s so funny?”

“Chryssy, you’re a girl! Girls have to be the damsels. Those are the rules.”

>You finish off your declaration with a smug little grin. She thinks she’s the only one who can make up rules, she had another thing coming.

>”Nuh-uh! I can be whatever I wanna be! There’s no rules on being a damsel anyway, you’re just making that stuff up!” She puffs her cheeks this time. Indeed, it seems the tables have indeed been turned! Feeling cocky and superior, you boop her snout with a finger, and quickly snatch it away as she tries to nip at it in retaliation.

 

“Just because you have that special changeling mumbo jumbo doesn’t mean you can be whatever you want to be. You’re a girl, with cooties, and girls with cooties always turn out to be damsels in some way or another. Those are the RULES.” You finish it off by sticking your tongue at her in triumphant victory.

>Honestly, you were just making up half the stuff you were talking about. But pushing Chrysalis’s buttons seemed to be pretty fun, so you decided to go on with the show, as it were. Chryssy on the other hand was getting all sorts of riled up. With a huff, she yanks at the blanket you tied around your shoulders earlier, pulling it off of you.

“Hey!”

>”New rule: Only the damsel gets to wear the blanket on our travels.”

“But-“

>”Those are the rules."

"...I'm starting to not like your rules..."

>"Well then I guess you should be careful what you say to the princess, huh?"

>Chrysalis sticks her tongue out at you mockingly as you huff and continue walking down the dirt road.

>Looking back at her, you see that she's tied your blanket around her neck like a scarf, still smirking at you.

>You don't think you really appreciated the smirking.

>"Hey Anonymous," she begins, still struggling to keep the blanket around her, "How much longer to that Manehatten place?"

"Uh... soon?"

>"How soon?"

"Like, I don't know... really soon?"

>"So today?"

"What? No."

>"But you said soon."

"Right. Soon could mean tomorrow."

>"Tomorrow isn't soon."

"Tomorrow is -kind- of soon."

>"No."

"Yes."

 

>"We ARE going the right way, aren't we?"

"Of course! I have a map, after all. See?"

>You pull out a crinkled piece of parchment from your pocket and unfold it.

>"Can I see it?"

"Sure. See, here we are."

>You jab your finger at a spot on the map near the middle. Chrysalis stares at it for a second, then gives you the most deadpan of deadpan stares.

>"Anon."

"Yes?"

>"This is in crayon."

"Yeah."

>"Did you draw this map?"

"Yes."

>"In blue crayon?"

"...I like blue."

>"Why did you draw a robot attacking Fillydelphia?"

"I was getting creative."

>"Nevermind. Where are we?"

>Your finger jabs once more at the center of the map, and Chrysalis stares at you a bit more.

>"This says we're in the woods."

"We are in the woods."

>Sweeping your arms out, you gesture wildly at the trees around you.

>"How did you even know this would be here?"

"I read it in a book with a map in it."

>"..."

"I wanted to make my own."

>"Uh huh."

"We're gonna be fine, Chryssy. Don't worry."

>She puffs her cheeks in tiny, adorable anger when you call her "Chryssy." Sometimes you got away with calling her it, but most times she would get pouty. "What did I say about that nickname?" she asks.

"That you love it and that I should always call you Chryssy?"

>"Noooo!" she says, trotting ahead of you and past some trees. "I said that I didn't want you calling me something silly like "Chryssy." I'm a princess and a queen, soon!" She brushes a bit of her green hair from her eyes. "Call me "your highness."

 

"No way!" you say, sticking your tongue out at her. "You don't even have a crown. If all knights need to have a shield, then all queens and princesses need crowns or something."

>Chrysalis flinches a tad, bringing a hoof to the top of her head as she gently paws it. "I will -too- have a crown! It... just hasn't grown out yet.."

>Grown out? She said grow out, right?

"Grow out? What does that mean?"

>"Nothing," she says, shaking her head. "Let's just keep going. I'm starting to get hungry again, and I don't want to... you know. Not this soon after the last time."

>Her eyes glance to your neck, causing you to bring a hand to the marks that dot the side of your flesh. You had let her feed on some of your love last night, and you had to agree with her. It'd be nice to not have her do that again so soon.

>But as long as she was happy, you think you would be too.

>It kind of seemed that the more time you were with her, the more you thought that to yourself.

"Right," you say, catching up to her. "Let's just keep walking until we can't walk no more. Maybe then we'll make it to Manehatten faster."

>She cocks her head to the side as she thinks over your "logic" but smiles and nods all the same.

>So you continued on, down a dusty dirt road through a sparse, green forest.

>The trees and wildlife were a welcome change to the dreary and cramped spaces of Fillydelphia. It all smelled different too. More... fresh. More free.

>Funny how you were going to another city.

 

>Lucky enough for you and your legs, Manehatten isn't far off at all!

>The two of you were walking up to the big city, large buildings and bustling ponies trotting about, not really paying you and mind as they went about their business.

>You and Chrysalis stood around the corner of an alleyway, peering out at the city folk.

>"So we're here."

"Yup."

>"What now?"

"I... guess we find something to eat?"

>Your shoulders shrug to her, and you spot a vendor on the side of the street selling oranges and cucumbers.

>Fishing around your pockets, you find only a single bit is on you. You found it in a gutter back in Filly as you two ran away.

"I don't think this is gonna be enough for the both of us..."

>Chrysalis casts her ears down a tad, then perks them up suddenly, smiling.

>"Oh, I know!" she says, prancing in place. "I'll just go up and tell that pony I'm a princess! Then he'll HAVE to give us some food!"

"What."

>Before you can ask her about this plan of hers, Chrysalis is already trotting over to the pony at the stall.

"Uh oh."

>"You there!" she says, pointing a hoof at the vendor. "I am Princess Chrysalis, soon to be QUEEN Chrysalis! I command you to relinquish some of your food to myself and my... uh..."

>She looks back at you and asks, "Are you my steward or my ward?"

"I don't know," you reply, "Which one of those is a pirate?"

>"None of them."

"Then I'm your pirate!"

>Chrysalis looks back to the vendor, who by now is looking at her with much confusion.

 

>"-And my pirate steward! Thank you in advance."

>With that, Chrysalis sits on her haunches while holding out her hooves to the vendor pony.

>The stallion is glancing around as if to make sure he's not seeing things, then cocks a smile at Chrysalis.

>"It's a little early to be dressin' up for Nightmare Night, eh kid?"

>You walk up to Chryssy and the vendor. The little changeling if puffing her cheeks at him, her fangs poking out of her mouth.

>"And what," she says, "Is that supposed to mean?"

>"Well look at ya, you're all dressed up like some sorta... bug thing, ain't ya? Look kid, Nightmare Night's in a few months. So scram, you're scarin' away my customers."

>Chryssy stamps her hooves a tad in frustration, but you hold out your one bit coin.

"How much food will this get us?"

>"One bit'll- WHOA. What are you, some kinda minotaur or somethin'? Cripes.." says the vendor, recoiling a bit at your presence.

"No," you say, squinting at him, "I'm a person. I guess that means you're just a big dumb horse, huh?"

>The stallion blinks in surprise then flares his nostrils. "Hey, watch what you say, kid. Nopony like a rude little minotaur."

"I'm not a minotaur!" you shout at him. You look to Chrysalis, who's still puffing her cheeks and buzzing her wings in a pouting fashion, then back to the vendor.

"AVAST!" you shout, pegging the stallion in the face with your bit.

>"HEY!" he shouts, rubbing his nose.

"QUICKLY DAMSEL. TAKE THE BOOTY."

 

>"AYE AYE," she says, snatching an orange in her mouth while you grab two cucumbers.

>Like little bolts of lighting, the two of you race off with your loot as the vendor finally realizes he was just mugged by two little kids.

>Was he giving chase? You look back and see that he... is not chasing you.

>Huh.

>Well that worked out nicely, you think. Chysalis and you turn into another alleyway and dive behind a few discarded cardboard boxes.

>"You think we gave him the slip?" Chryssy asks as she drops her orange into her lap.

"Oh yeah, definitely." you say back to her, smiling. Your pass one of the cucumbers over to her and bite into the other one, your hunger starting to get ahead of itself.

>You both sit there, in old boxes within an ally as you eat away at the small lunch you stole.

>Were you homeless now? It kind of seemed that way.

>Still, anything was better than the orphanage.

>Chrysalis finishes off her orange and starts on the cucumber you gave her. "Hey Anon?" she asks.

"Hm?" you say, mouth full of veg.

>"Thank you. For taking me along with you."

"Of course, Chryssy. You're my best friend, after all," you say back with a smile.

>She puffs her cheeks when you call her by the nickname, but it's not as grumpy this time. Maybe she was liking it? You hoped so.

>You start to eat your cucumber again, when all of a sudden you hear a voice from across the street.

>Behind the voice was the sound of a few "ooo's" and "ahh's".

>It sounded like...

>...a magic show.