“She’s been following me all day, what gives?”
Anon glances behind himself to see the tuft of a mane sticking out from behind a bush. He gives a little chuckle at the sight. She is worse at hiding than Pinkie was sometimes. At least she wasn’t using some stupidly obvious costume. Even still, she thought he couldn’t actually see her. It’s kind of cute.
He takes a few more steps forward, before stopping again to glance. This time she had made her way behind another pony, who looked quite befuddled at the filly hiding behind her tail. The elder pony snorts and flicks her tail, pushing the little filly behind. She gives a little gasp of surprise as the elder pony walks off. Staring at her for only a moment, the filly turns her gaze back to Anon only to lock eyes with him. He gives her a little smile. She responds with a surprised yelp.
She gallops away, hat flying off in the process, towards the outskirts of Ponyville. Making it to the edge of the town, she places a hoof on her head to feel the hat gone. Another gasp of surprise passes her lips before she turns around to go get the lost article of clothing. However before she even takes a few steps, she sees Anon making his way towards the hat as well. She gives it a little moment thought, the hat was rather important to her after all. In the end it wasn’t important enough it seems for she runs off into the Everfree, the hat all but forgotten.
Anon walks over to pick it up, a look of confusion on his face. The hat is a simple little thing, similar to that of a baseball cap from Earth. It had a white base with a black rim in front. On the back is a little green Velcro strap to help keep it on the head. It even had a little design on the front. Written right before the rim is the name ‘Anon’ over a transparent pink heart.
Did she get this custom made? She must have, it’s not like ponies just sold hats like this randomly. Or maybe they did and he just wasn’t aware of it. Either way, it is obvious she had a thing for him. One question goes through Anon’s mind as he comes to the conclusion.
“Why?”
Trying to answer his own question, he takes the hat and places it on his own head. He wouldn’t want to lose it after all, even if it did make him look like a pretentious douchebag. Now all he had to do was find the little filly, couldn’t be too hard. She only just ran into the Everfree Forest, a place known for being dark, mysterious and dangerous. The darkness may not hold any fears and mystery just a flight of fancy in his mind, but one could not reason danger. So why try?
Anon shrugs his shoulders and makes his way to the forest. If some problem should arise then he could probably handle it, especially if a little filly thinks she could do the same.
 
“Help!” screams a little filly’s voice, “Someone please help me!”
The scream comes from somewhere to the right, off the natural path dug into the ground.  Anon’s ears perk at the sound, trying to determine the exact location of the voice. A few moments of natural silence pass before he hears it again.
“Heeeeeeelllpppp!”
Not wasting any time, he rushes off to the sound. Forgoing the path, Anon leaps right into the thicket of trees. The little filly screams again, closer than before and much more frightened than at first. Anon tries to listen closely to see if there is any other sound, but if there is than it’s washed out by the sound of the filly’s screams.
‘Was she stuck in quicksand? Did she run into a timber wolf? Maybe she tripped and twisted a hoof?’ All of these worries swirl around in Anon’s head as he makes his way to the sound.
It seems to take an eternity before he finally pushes through a thicket into a clearing where the sound emanated from. There was no difficulty in finding the filly, though some part of him wished it was something else. The little filly was hovering in the air right in the middle of the clearing, wrapped tightly by a mass of vines.
The vines were a deep forest green with tinges of thorns running their length along with a few budding petals near the part that held the filly. The part that held the filly was smooth by sight, but rough upon touch and seemed to be moving of their own accord. They had already wrapped themselves entirely around the filly’s waist as another set of vines made their way to her hooves. As Anon stood there confused, one of the vines wraps itself around her hoof and pulls it down. Another vine on the other side does the exact same while another grabs her tail.
In a matter of moments, the vines have her in a pretty embarrassing position. Her front legs lie below her, tied together while her hind legs are spread apart. The vines around her waist keep her steadied in the sky while the other set wraps around her tail and lifts it high to reveal everything. The trapped filly gives a cry of dismay, but the vines put an end to that quickly as it shoves itself down her throat. Her groans are muffled by the vine in her throat and she struggles all the fiercer, but it doesn’t last long. Almost immediately after taking the vine in her mouth, she starts to move more sluggishly and her eyes seem to glaze over.
A look of exhaustion crosses her face, quickly replaced by acceptance soon after. As if they can sense that the filly is defeated, a single vine makes its way from the ground to a much warmer place. It does a licking motion at the filly’s entrance, eliciting a half-hearted grunt.
“Hey!” Anon yells in uncomfortable dismay.
The vine near the filly’s nethers seems to look at Anon. If a faceless rounded object could show an expression, this one would hold one of annoyance. However since it couldn’t, the vine instead just sways left and right in an impatient looking movement. The trapped filly’s eyes open at the lack of movement near her fillyhood and place their gaze upon Anon. All the energy rushes back into her as she starts to struggle against the bonds again. Her face turns a crimson red.
Anon gives her an awkward smile and tries to play this off like some common day occurrence. “You know that’s just a filly, right?” He asks the vines as he tries to think of a way to get the filly out of this situation.
He wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the vines give no audible answer back. Instead it just whips itself up in down in what looks like a crude nodding motion. Then with little further hesitation, it turns itself back onto the filly and makes a pushing motion into her crotch. The filly gives a fearful moan at the return of the presence between her legs, her face somehow becoming ever redder.
“Whoa there, buddy!” exclaims Anon, forgoing any more thought to instead rush the vine.
Picking up as much speed as possible, he grabs the vine trying to penetrate and pulls it down to ground without stopping in movement. The vine struggles back, but proves weaker than the human. It whips away from the filly’s crotch and promptly smacks itself into one of the surrounding trees before being dragged all the way to the ground. Wasting no more time, Anon grabs the vine around the petals and pulls out his pocket knife. With a few swift hacking motions, the vine separates and falls limp upon the ground.
As if sensing parts of itself dying, the vine within the filly’s mouth, as well as the ones holding her, release her and rush Anon. Prepared for this to happen, he leaps back and then rolls off to the side to avoid getting grabbed. The vines whip past and go to turn back around, but Anon embraces all of them in a solid grip. Blood begins to well from his hand as the vines thorns dig into his skin. He pays it no mind though, too busy taking the knife blade and slashing furiously at the vines.
Each hack into the plant results in a satisfying *thunk* while it squirms against the blade slicing them apart one by one. Eventually they simply go limp as the blade slices through the tenuous sinew that held them together to the very end. Once the final one goes limp, Anon re-pockets the blade and drops the vines. His hand is filled with thorns and bleeding profusely but he still pays it no mind. His focus is more on the filly lying before him.
When Anon had cut the first vine they had dropped her to attack him and she hadn’t gotten back up. He places a hand on her face and she twitches gently. Her eyes open slowly and meet Anon’s. A look of embarrassment fills them as she remembers exactly what just happened to her. She goes to turn her head, but Anon places a gentle hand on the top of her. He begins to pet her slowly, trying to comfort her after what just happened.
“It’ll be okay little filly,” he says as his hand makes it way behind her ear, “I got ya.”
He gives her another awkward smile and this time she responds with one of her own.
 
“You know the Everfree is dangerous right,” Anon says as he guides another piece of cake into his mouth.
The little filly gives a slight nod. She hadn’t really said much since he had saved her, but to be fair it was more than what she said beforehand.
After Anon had made sure she was completely alright, he had escorted her out of the Everfree and took her to his home to get her cleaned up. She had been covered in grass stains and petal juice along with some white stuff covering her muzzle. Once she was clean, he sat her down at the table and made something for her to eat. While the cake was baking, he had asked her a few questions but she stayed silent.
That little head gesture was the most of a response that he got out of her all afternoon. He had expected a little bit more than just that, maybe even a thank you, but she seemed determined to stay silent. It wasn’t really a rude silent though, more of a shy one. At best, Anon would be able to lock his eyes with hers for about a few seconds. Other than that her gaze is always on the ground or at him when he isn’t looking.
A few moments of strange silence passes, only broken slightly by the scraping of fork on plate. Anon places another slice of cake in his mouth and chews slowly, thinking of how he could get her to talk.
“So what’s your name, little one?” he asks after realizing he didn’t even know that.
She looks shocked at the question, her gaze tearing from the ground momentarily to look at Anon face to face. Her hooves start fidgeting underneath the table as she mumbles under her breath, “L-little L-league.”
She starts to blush all the harder as she says her name, almost as if she was embarrassed of it. Anon only smiles at her though.
“That’s a cute name,” she looks back to him again, surprise clear on her face. “Though do you mind if I call you Lily?”
The question catches her off guard. She gives a silent look of surprise before retreating back to her shy pose. Fidgeting a little bit more; she finally nods in approval of the new name. A faint smile starts to play on her lips as she realizes that she just got a new nickname.
“Lily it is then,” Anon gives her another smile, “My name is Anon, though I feel like you already knew that.”
She nods again, confirming Anon’s statement.
“Speaking of which,” he reaches up and grabs the hat from atop his head,” I believe this belongs to you.”
He extends his arm to give her the hat. Lily stares at it briefly for a few seconds before tentatively taking it from him. As she grabs it, his hand rubs up against her hoof. The slight contact sends a shiver down her spine. Whipping her arm back, she places the hat against her chest and takes a nibble from her barely eaten cake. Another moment of silence passes. Anon takes another bite of his cake, the once large piece slowly diminishing with each moment of silence.
“Thank you,” Lily whispers into her cake.
The sound was barely audible yet Anon hears it all the same. It was too quiet in the room for him not to hear it after all. In place of a response, he simply takes another piece of cake and pops it into his mouth. The little filly fidgets uncomfortably at the lack of an actual response.
“It would have been really bad if you didn’t come save me,” she continues,” That plant was kind of…”
Her voice trails off into a forced silence, but Anon got the message. Smile still on his face, he takes his fork and twirls it in his hands.
“You know I always said the Everfree was dark, mysterious, and dangerous,” the fork twirls once more before he stabs it into the last piece of his cake, “I don’t fear the dark, revel in the thought of mystery, and always played cautious for danger. However I have to add a new adjective it seems.”
He shoves the last piece into his mouth and chews it slowly, savoring every bite. Lily only looks at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish the sentence. An eternity seems to pass before he finally swallows.
“Perverted,” he says at last, “I’m not so sure I can deal with that no matter how I think about it.”
A small chuckle passes his lips as he places his fork down on the now empty plate. Satisfied with the meal, he leans back on his chair and throws an arm behind him for comfort. His gaze locks on the filly with a sort of curiosity. She meets his gaze with one of timid reverence. Her hooves wrap all the tighter around her precious hat.
“So, where are your parents little filly?” Anon asks after a few more moments of silence.
Little League tenses at the question, the reverence for Anon fading from her luminescent purple eyes to be replaced by something akin to deep sorrow. She drops her head and stares at the chair she sat upon. A little squeak of sorrowful dismay comes out.
Thrown off by the sudden change in attitude, Anon hops from his chair to comfort the filly. He rounds the table quickly and places a caring hand on her mane. She doesn’t even respond to the touch, only jolting with a stifled hiccup.
“Th-they d-d-disappeared,” she finally says, her voice twisted by the held back sobs, “I w-woke up one day and they were just gone. I-I didn’t know what t-“
She stops mid-sentence and breaks down crying, the held back tears flowing free. All of the adoration, the shyness, and even the uncomfortable air around her shatter into sorrow at the seemingly harmless question. Her hoof reaches out to push Anon away, but it results in nothing more than a feeble push. Ignoring it, Anon wraps his arms around the poor filly. She looks up at his face, tears still streaming, and gasp in surprise. He was still smiling at her.
This smile wasn’t that cocky smile that he’d held all throughout the meal though nor was it the smile he would give whenever he noticed her stalking behind him. It wasn’t even the awkward smile he had given her when the vines were trying to push into her. This smile was something more than that.
This smile was a sorrowful one, full of understanding and a deep underlying sense of caring.
The tears come back as she buries her face into Anon’s shirt and starts to ramble into it. The words come out muffled, but he doesn’t even try to tell her that. He just lets her go on with her little ramble. She could ramble to her hearts content as long as the tears stopped afterward. Anon could never stand watching a pony cry, especially when it was a filly doing the crying.
Eventually the sobbing stops and Lily falls silent against the shirt. Finally she pulls her head back and looks into Anon’s eyes.
“You didn’t catch any of that, did you?” she questions cutely.
He shakes his head slowly, the smile not leaving his face. Lily chuckles at the casual way he answers her. She places her hooves on Anon’s chest and pushes away slightly, muzzle no longer pressed to shirt but hooves still touching. She drops her gaze once more.
“I-I didn’t know what to do when Mom and Dad left,” she chokes back a sob, “I roamed around looking for someone, but no one would take me. Eventually I just gave up and resigned to a life of virtual solitude. Fighting to survive every day, mooching off my friends, not really sure where I would sleep at night,” a single tear runs down her face.
Seeing it, Anon rubs it away endearingly though he doesn’t say anything. Feeling his hand on her face, she pushes her head into it to show that she wanted it to stay. He obliges without hesitation.
“Then I saw you,” she continues, “Someone who was strange in these parts, in all parts actually. You weren’t dismayed by it though. Every day you helped those who wanted it and was polite to those who resented you. Not once did you ever show any sort of disdain for the world. I-it was inspiring, so I started following you. Emulating you even, trying to become someone as confident about the world as you were.”
She pulls her head away from Anon’s hand and looks into his eyes sadly.
“I guess I failed in that huh? I couldn’t even muster up the courage to talk to you,” she gives another hiccup.
Her eyes start to fill with tears again. Before the first one even falls, Anon places a hand underneath her eye and rubs the soaked fur. He does the same on the other side before placing her down on the table. He runs a caring hand through her mane.
“So, you want a father figure, huh,” his states the question casually, “You got no parents of your own after all.”
Lily’s eyes light up as she realizes what Anon is implying. She leaps to her hooves and runs up to Anon. Placing her front hooves on his chest; she looks hopefully, almost expectantly, into his eyes. Her mouth opens slowly as she tries to force herself to ask the impossible.
“W-would yo-,” is all she manages before Anon places a single finger on her lips to shush her.
“You do realize that no daughter of mine is allowed into the Everfree, especially after what I saw today,” he pulls his fingers back and places his arms on his waist, “Misbehaving like that results in just punishment you know.”
A look of elation crosses the little filly’s face as Anon points down the hallway. He had a stern look placed upon his face, a sort of uncanny joy hidden underneath.
“Go to your room Lily and don’t come out until dinnertime. That’ll give you plenty of time to think about what you did.”