>It all started as innocently as could be, with a sunbeam shifting through the boughs of an old oak just enough to hit Anon in the eye. He awoke knowing very little about his situation. He knew his name was Anonymous and he also knew Anonymous was not a name. He quickly surveyed his surroundings to find the offending beam of light that had awoken him and the old oak he had been sleeping under, a dusty old trail that seemed to lead to a quaint village of thatch-roofed cottages, and not a whole lot else. On his person he had a well tailored black suit, now covered in grass from laying under the oak for some unknowable amount of time, with a red tie. Anon did the only logical thing, he brushed the grass off of himself and start in towards the village.

>>27819302
>>27819308
Im listening

>>27819302
I'd like to imagine in this scenario that there'd be one Anon for each pony waifu/husband and he'd have the stereotypical traits of those particular waifufags

>The village, which Anon suspected was named Ponyville, though he did not know why, was populated predominantly by small colorful equines, all going about their days work. From time to time, little hints at the shadow that hung over the land Anon knew to be Equestria would surface, in the look of a passing pony, or in how unwashed the suit of another human looked, but at the time they were all things easily put to the back of Anon's mind. After all, there were much more important matters to be tackled ; where exactly were “Ponyville” and “Equestria”, and how did he get there? Where had he been before? How did he know so much about this area, when he felt like he'd never really seen it before?

>He suspected his best bet for finding the answers to these questions was to find Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, who resided in the crystal castle at the edge of Ponyville. When he arrived he found his path barred by two large (by pony standards) stallions wearing the regalia of Celestia's Royal Guard guarding the front gate.
>”No admission for additional humans. That means you, scumbag.”
“B-but, I have q-questions, I mean, I have to- have to ask the p-princess about...” Anon muttered, just barely getting the words audible over the torrent of spaghetti falling out of the pockets. He had been completely unprepared for any kind of resistance and it caught him heavily off-guard
>Anon stammered out a few more things, but the guards remained unmoved. Eventually, after enough nervous looks and stuttered half-sentences, one of the guards asked if Anon was new.
“Yes,” Anon managed, finally having found his ground “yes, I'm new and I need a lot of things explained to me, so if you could just let me see the princess...”
>”No human gets an audience with the princess unless she personally requests you. You want Orientation Anon”
“And where can I find him?”
>”He's in the castle, where you're not allowed. But if it'll get you to leave sooner, I'LL go get him for you” one of the guards says with a huff and rolling of his eyes before storming off into the castle

>Anon tried to make passing conversation with the remaining guard over the next few minutes and was resolutely ignored.
>Eventually, the guard returned, shoving another human in front of Anon
>”I keep telling you, Orientation Anon is in the west wing of the castle, I'm Cleaning Anon!”
>”And I keep telling YOU that I know that your lying to get out of work, you lazy bum. The Princess feeds you and clothes you and puts a roof over your head, asking only that you bring any newbies up to speed, and you won't even do that. You just want to rest on your laurels, thinking you don't have anything to do now that the big waves are over and there aren't any new Anons. Well, lookie here, I found a new Anon. Now tell him what's what or I'm not letting you back in the castle. And just so you know, there's a storm scheduled tonight”

>The New Anon sighed. “I guess I have TWO jobs now. Look, are you really new here, just from this morning?”
>Our Anon nodded
>”And no one else spawned in with you, just you by yourself?”
>Our Anon nodded again
>”Good, that should make you the last one. I'll have to tell Orientation Anon later on, I think he was trying to keep a running total of all the humans here in Equestria. Anyway, it all started a few months ago, with one single human. Couldn't remember his real name or anything about where he came from, but he knew all about Equstria. He went to Princess Twilight for help, trying to figure out who he was and where he came from. The Princess tried to help Original Anon, but neither her magic nor her books could divulge any information on this strange new creature before her. Then the next day, two Anons came, both asking the same questions and looking for the same answers. Then four, then eight, and as you can probably tell, things started to get out of control quite quickly. All these new migrants, a small place like Ponyville couldn't handle it. As I'm sure you already know, these tiny horses all have Cutie Marks, some talent that makes them special. Because of this, they're all really good at their jobs. Too good. Humans can't compete. Even simple jobs, like harvesting apples, ponies just did them many times better than humans. The only work we could find was the work no one else wanted to do, and we could only find it for slave wages. So, some Anons tried something a little different”

>”Some Anons went to the edge of the Everfree Forest and started cutting down trees, building houses, foraging for food and planting what they could. Humans can't work as efficiently as ponies, but the ground here is magically fertile, so it wasn't all bad, until the Anons really started coming in. By the hundreds, then thousands, eventually to total in the hundreds of thousands, though by then the diaspora had already begun. The community grew, it wasn't a village they were building now but a city, one bigger than Ponyville itself. The ponies were up in arms. They were threatened by us, so many of us out of nowhere we 'weren't integrating' and 'damaging an important natural ecosystem'. The Princesses tried to calm them, but the crowds were out for blood. Humans, you see, hadn't had the best reputation by this point. Some Anons tried to live among the ponies, and sometimes that meant doing things ponies didn't like, like sleeping in the streets or stealing to survive. And it wasn't helped that ponies can barely tell humans apart. We all just look the same to them. So all humans were thieves and liars and generally undesirable, and here we are building a city at the edge of their borders and they weren't happy in the least. Torches, pitchforks, the whole nine yards. We're lucky the Princesses were on our side, or there would have been a massacre. As it was, our houses were burned down, our fields plowed over and trees planted over top of them. We were told to 'disperse' and 'integrate better with the pony community' “

>”You wanna know the worst of it? I think I side with the ponies. Anons don't work well together in large groups. They ravaged the Everfree Forest, the 'houses' they built were terrible, our crops were never gonna grow without help that the pegasi were never gonna give, and Anons just get weird the larger the groups they're in. They start to lose concepts like 'personal space' and 'personal hygiene', a deadly combination I'll have you know. Some of them were talking about enslaving or killing off the ponies.”
>”So, we gave up. We dispersed. Mostly across Equestria, though there are tales of Anons going to the Badlands and the Griffon and Dragon Kingdoms. Not many tales of them returning though. Any 'success' stories are usually from the larger towns, Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, and a lot of the east coast. I've heard of some Anons working on expanding the railroad to the south of Appleoosa, trying to make it through the desert to what they hope to be the tropics on the other side.

>But you wanna know the truth? They all have too many humans already. Anywhere you wanna go, a hundred Anons have already thought of it. If I have any advice for you, it's to figure out where we all came from and get back there yourself. Wherever it was, whatever it was like, it has to be better than here. Now it's been real nice talking to you, but if the floors aren't kept crystal clear the guards leave me outside at night. Best of luck to you”
>And that's where we find our Anon. The skies are just now beginning to darken, pegasi moving gray clouds into place for the storm tonight. And our Anon has nowhere to go. But he still had something. He had his determination to keep on going. He might not be wherever he came from anymore, and his new home might not like him very much, but he was going to survive. And so, he started the rounds
>Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity were already as full up on all the humans as they could handle
>Pinkie Pie lives in an apartment and already had a roommate
>Humans couldn't stand on the clouds that made up Rainbow Dash's house, and she hates humans anyway
>On through the background ponies, any that could support a human already were, under Twilight's order to be welcoming and above all else friendly to these outsiders.
>Anon even tries Zecora only to find her hut already over-full of humans
>He was on his way back to Ponyville when the rain started. In the darkness and rain he can't find his way back and becomes lost, eventually sheltering in a bush under a tree, keeping mostly dry and out of the wind.

>Morning comes, and with the morning comes the sun, and with the sun comes new found determination. With that determination, Anon gets himself out of the woods and back to the outskirts of Ponyville. And that is precisely as far as his determination gets him before he runs out. Anon has a breakdown. He falls to the still wet grass and begins to cry. Hundreds of thousands of people, all with the same knowledge as him, have come before him? What could he possibly do to stand out among hundreds of thousands of Anons? What could he do better than hundreds of thousands of others, let alone do to compete against ponies with their cutie marks? He has no home, no friends, is actively discouraged from spending time with his own kind, and he had now idea how to fix any of those problems.
>After a while, the crying stopped. It wasn't a solution, only putting off problems, and so, with great effort, Anon stopped crying on the cold, wet ground and decided on some things.
>He needed a plan. He needed measurable, completable goals. He needed priorities.
>His first priority was food, and he had some idea how he might be able to get some. He may not be the first Anon to think of this, but it was early enough he might be the first to think of it today. And so off he went to Sugarcube Corner.

>”Hiya 'Nonny! What can I get you?”
“I- well, I... what I mean is... do you know me?” Anon's pride gets the better of him and he switched topics instead of bold-facedly begging for food.
>”Sure do! You're the Last Anon, right? Word travels fast in Ponyville”
“How do you tell me apart from the rest?”
>”Oh, that's easy, because you're all different. You might not have Cutie Marks to show it, but every human is special in their own unique way. And I just sort of picked up that you were new. It's obvious really, just look at you!”
>Anon looks down at himself, but doesn't see what Pinkie is talking about
>”Now are you here to buy something or do I have to kick you out? I'd hate for things to have to get physical”
“About that, you see, I guess I was hoping, if, do you have any old food? Anything you were thinking of throwing away?”

>”The Cakes used to give away expired food to humans at the end of the day, but then humans started to gather before we closed shop and it was driving customers away. Now they just give it to the food bank Twilight setup for other businesses that do the same. It should be open by now and might still have some food leftover. I'd give you a cupcake, but if I bought any more I'd be behind on rent”
>Pinkie gives him directions to the food bank and he starts his journey there, hunger driving him
>The food bank is a bust, for now at least. It's sunset when all the food shops give away any old food they couldn't sell and stocks don't normally last very long. Anon decides instead to check out some place he knows has food, and some he might even be able to barter for. Anon heads for Sweet Apple Acres.

>The Last Anon shows up at Sweet Apple Acres to find Applejack out in the fields, bucking apples, where he explains his situation to her.
>”The last one, you say? It's been over a month since you lot started showing up out of nowhere, and we weren't prepared in the slightest. There's just not enough food to feed a hundred and fifty thousand new mouths out of nowhere. Already I've had to start charging outrageous prices for my apples just to ration them. It's hurt a lot of families and I still have no idea how we're going to make it through winter. It would help if any of you actually could do some work, but you're all just so danged slow. In the time a takes a team of humans to glean one tree I've bucked fifteen. I know they try hard, but they just aren't capable of the same results a hard working pony gets. I'm sorry, I really am, I'd let you work for some food if I could, heck, I'd give it to you for free, but I'm already eating less to support the humans I already got working for me. And I've got a family to think about. I really wish I knew what to tell you or that I could help, but I just don't and can't. Hope you have better luck at the next place you go”

“Could I at least have some water? I haven't had anything to drink since I got here yesterday morning”
>”I reckon I can spare some water. Head on inside and ask one of the humans for a cup, they'll get you settled as long as they know you won't be hanging around”
>A couple cups of water make a poor substitute for a meal, and the other Anons the Last Anon had to deal with weren't as friendly as they could have been (though they were much nicer when they learned he'd leave after he got his water), but the Last Anon was still further ahead leaving Sweet Apple Acres than he was when he had shown up, which was a new experience.
>Anon figures he hasn't quite met his 'food' goal, but he'll cross it off the list for now. Humans can go several days without food, and the food bank doesn't open up until sunset. There's no use in just waiting around, so he moves on to a new goal. It's been a day and a half since he was last clean, and he imagines he and his suit are starting to smell like it. Asking a few ponies for directions before he gets one that actually feels like helping him, he finds his way to a pond local ponies use as a swimming hole. His suit probably isn't rated for this, but he's in no position to have it dry-cleaned, so he hops in the deserted pond and swims around for a few minutes. He really wishes he had some soap, but this will have to do. After finishing up, it's still mid-day. He figures it's time to grab those bootstraps and start lifting.

>The Last Anon trudged around town, looking for any work he could find. The only places looking to hire had strict 'No Humans Need Apply' policies. After much fruitless searching, it started to become late and the Last Anon decided it was time to head to the food bank. He found dozens of other humans milling about, and more on their way. Eventually, a pair of guards showed up and cowed everyone in to a line. The Last Anon was near the back. When he got to the front of the line he was handed a large, old cinnamon bun and sent on his way. It wasn't much, but it was something, finally something to eat. Even if it did have cream cheese frosting and the Last Anon preferred traditional icing, it was still food. The Last Anon bit greedily into the cinnamon roll to find it filled with raisins. Truly this was a dark and cruel world.

>The last Anon now needed to find a place to bed down for the night. After much thought and wandering, the Last Anon found himself at the base of the old oak tree he had been under when he first arrived in Equestria. Waking up there had been the last time he had felt at peace. And so, back beneath the boughs of the old oak tree, the Last Anon lay down his head on the slope created by the roots of the tree growing beneath the ground and fell asleep.

>When the Last Anon woke up on his third day in Equestria, he had new priorities, new goals, and a new plan.
>First he once again bathed in the pond. Then, he returned to Sweet Apple Acres. Here, he procured more water, and explained his intentions to the other Anons gathered there. He was going to Canterlot. It was a large city, by pony standards, and had more opportunities and likely lower human density than Ponyville. It was also the closest city to Ponyville.
>Though he hated to, he had eaten only a cinnamon bun over the past three days, and so he begged the other humans for food. The Last Anon couldn't afford a train ticket and it would be difficult enough climbing the old mountain trail without having to do it on an empty stomach. Several anons relented a single apple each of their own meager supplies, if only to be rid of the Last Anon. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep going
>And keep going the Last Anon did. He found his way from Ponyville to the base of the mountain Canterlot was situated on and to the bottom of an old trail. It looked like the trail hadn't seen much use since the train up to Canterlot was made, and who knew how long ago that was. The Last Anon started up the trail.

>It was well past sunset when the Last Anon made it into Canterlot. The streetlights pushed against the darkness of the night, and the night pushed back. The Last Anon wandered the streets aimlessly. Every now and then, he would try and nestle himself between some barrels or crates behind a shop to sleep, but the patrolling guards always seemed to find him and rouse him. Sleeping in public, he was repeatedly warned, was illegal and if he kept it up he'd find himself in jail, or worse, deported to the Human Detention Facility. The Last Anon didn't know what that was, but he didn't like the sound of it. So he wandered around until daylight, when he began to see other humans. He asked them about local conditions
>From what he learned, the job market was even tighter than Ponyville. The food bank, however, was well stocked and no Anon went hungry in Canterlot. There was also a shelter, a special building put up for the humans to stay in. There weren't enough beds, so people had to sleep in shifts, and there was always the possibility of someone rifling through your stuff. There were also shower and bathroom facilities, though nothing to wash clothes. The Princesses had promised they would add those soon, however. The Last Anon asked for and was given directions to both the food bank and the human shelter.

>Anon had much more choice in food at the Canterlot food bank. Most of the fruit and vegetables weren't very fresh, but they were still edible, and some were merely malformed or oddly shaped and unfit for sale. There was also a lot of food thrown out by restaurants at the end of the night, of which Canterlot had many more of than Ponyville. Then there was the food donated by the Princesses themselves, to make sure the human population didn't go hungry (and didn't feel the need to steal food from ponies). The Last Anon left the food bank full for the first time since his first day in Equestria.
>Anon then moved on to the shelter. He found it to be full, and was informed that the night and early morning shifts are usually full up and hard to get in to, but the mid-afternoon and evening shifts were generally lower capacity. The actual explanation came from a guard posted to watch over the humans while they slept and made a few accusations about human laziness, but that was the important parts of it.

>The Last Anon went to every shop in town, one by one. Between, he talked to ponies and humans, chasing any lead he hoped he could find. But there just wasn't work. No work for a human, anyway. The Princesses had stamped down pretty harshly on openly denying humans work, but Anon could tell from the excuses they made that “you just don't look right for the job” or “I was looking for someone a bit... different”
>Being covertly denied for being human so many times gave Anon an idea

>”No one's allowed into the castle without permission, and you don't have permission”
“I'm not here to enter the castle. I'd like to join up with the Royal Guard. Who do I have to talk to?”
>”Oh, not this again. Look, humans can't join the guard, ok? They aren't as strong and hardy as Earth ponies, they can't fly like Pegasus ponies, and they have no magic like Unicorn ponies do. There are tests for each of them, but no tests for humans, so humans can't join the guard”
“But that's discriminatory, and also illegal! Celestia and Luna themselves made the anti-discrimination laws ; you can't not hire someone just because they're human. You have to at least let me try”
>”Yeah, and who exactly is breaking this law?”
“Whoever hires the guards is, obviously”
>”And who precisely is that? The Captain of the Guard? Celestia and Luna themselves? Who do you expect to arrest these people for 'discrimination' anyway?”
“YOU, if you were doing your job”
>The guard you've been talking with and his partner across the door share a look, then start raucously laughing
>They're still laughing as Anon walks away

>It's about mid-afternoon, so Anon makes his way to the shelter to take a much needed nap. By the time he wakes up, it's past sunset. He goes to the food bank to find a large crowd of humans gathered around it, with some mean looking guards keeping the peace. The Last Anon decides to wait near the back of the crowd ; he won't get the freshest food that those at the front of the crowd are getting, but he won't have to deal with the guards and he has had quite enough of dealing with guards for the day. While waiting the Last Anon decides to strike up conversation with the Anons around him, inquiring about the Human Detention Facility.

>It turns out, as the largest crowds of humans were showing up, tens of thousands a day, crime was rampant. The ponies were on the edge of rioting (which they eventually did with the destruction of the human community at the edge of the Everfree Forrest) and the Princesses all agreed they had to do something to quell the anger rising in the pony community. Jails were overflowing, Tartarus was too small (and, frankly, overkill for humans), and the underdeveloped pony prison system just wasn't equipped to handle potentially thousands of new inmates. So, the Princesses pooled resources from all over Equestria and built a new containment facility, especially for humans. The project was very secret, people only know it was built somewhere out west. Rumors about it were sparse, as no one ever returned from it, but everyone knew that if you got arrested and put on on west-bound train, you weren't coming back. The Last Anon decided he very much did not want to go there.

>Anon spent weeks in Canterlot. He was fed at the food bank and slept and showered at the shelter. The clothes washing facilities were always just on the horizon, so Anon would occasionally stand in the showers in his suit so try to keep it clean. It didn't seem to damage the suit any, and he thought it made him stand out from the crowds of humans that often did nothing to wash their clothing.
>Anon hated every minute of it. He hated the handouts he was forced to live on, he hated the way merchants kept a special close eye on their goods when he was around, he especially hated all of the free time he had that he wasted doing nothing. He tried his best to better himself, exercising how he could, trying to learn what he could from books in the Canterlot library (which, while smaller than the Castle Library, was accessible to all) and always, always, ALWAYS on the lookout for a job. One day, he hit success

>It was in the library itself. It had seen few visitors in the days before the humans started to show up, but now found itself a hub of activity as otherwise unemployed Anons tried to better themselves to stand out from the crowd, much like the Last Anon, and others who simply used it as a way to pass the time. This new surge of activity had required the hiring of more staff early on. Human staff, as most ponies saw the organizing of books as a waste of talent
>The Last Anon had been diligent, asking every day if an opening had become available. When the day came where there finally was one it didn't quite register. Anon had been so prepared for the same disappointment he'd had for dozens of days that it wasn't until he was asked if he'd like to fill that opening that the realization hit him. The Last Anon jumped on the chance for some work. It was only part time, and the pay wasn't much, but it was something, a foothold to be leveraged to climb to greater heights. Or so the Last Anon hoped, anyway.

>Every day, the Last Anon was paid a handful of bits for a few hours of frantic work, reshelving books on the absurdly high shelves of the library, going up and down a ladder hundreds of times with books balanced in his hands, trying to find where they belonged. It was hard work keeping up with the crowds, but rewarding, and in more than just a monetary way. After weeks of sitting around gathering dust, the Last Anon was doing something productive, and it felt good.

>It only occurred to the Last Anon to ask about the man he was replacing several days into his new job.
>”He crashed the wrong party” the head librarian said. “Some big get-together of Canterlot's elite, and he and a few friends thought it would be a good idea to show up, uninvited and unannounced. Unicorns can be a finicky lot, I'll be the first to admit, but these in particular were a stodgy bunch that found untold amounts of offense at there being actual merriment at a party. One of the guests had connections and the whole group of humans was hauled off under the pretenses of 'disorderly conduct' and 'disturbing the peace' and every other charge under the sun that they could make up.”
“ 'Hauled off ' you say. Out West?”
>”Out West”
“For being too lively at a party?”
>”For being too lively at the WRONG party”
“Did anyone tell the Princesses? The ponies in charge seem to be the only ones making a real effort towards helping my kind”
>”Oh yes, they are furious, but it was days later and there's no documentation to tell which Anons they were, so after they got shipped off there was no way to find them again. So, I hired you. And I highly advise you to steer clear of any pony get-together to which you were not invited”

>After a few days, the bits really started cluttering up the Last Anon's pockets, but he had an idea of how he was going to spend them. He was going to rent an apartment. Of course, in a market as high-class and desirable as Canterlot, going it alone was far out beyond his meager budget. Instead, he found the most affordable place he could, a new apartment building built specifically to accommodate the population boom in Canterlot after the humans started showing up, and started spending his free time not reading or exercising as much but talking with other humans who had found jobs of their own. After nearly a week of constant searching, the Last Anon had found three prospective roomates and talked with their employers, and they to his, and they started to sort out the actual renting of the apartment. The Last Anon had to borrow some money from his new friends, all of whom had been working longer than him and at higher paying jobs, but he managed first, last, and a damage deposit in time for the fall winds to start blowing.

>It took all winter for the Last Anon to pay back his debts while staying ahead on rent, but pay them he did, and on time. Times were tough, it was said, all through Equestria. The ponies had extended the growing season, hired as much human help as they could get during the harvesting season, and shortened winter as much as they could without “Throwing out the balance of nature”, but there just wasn't enough food to go around. Food prices rose and the Canterlot food bank began rationing heavily, but the Last Anon still had enough to get by. He knew if he kept up his hard work, then come spring, with fresh crops and his debts payed off, he could start to buy his own food and be happy with that

>The start of spring was wonderful. Pony crops grew at amazing rates and so food was being shipped by the train full to Canterlot within days of winter wrapping up. The food bank stopped it's rationing, although without his debts to pay the Last Anon now had enough spare money after rent to buy his own food, which he did in part out of the pride of working his own way through the world and partly out of pride for his race. While humans had been advised to integrate into pony society, things could only go so far. Humans just couldn't eat hayburgers. And so, over time, some restaurants began to cater to the human palate. Seafood was too expensive for the Last Anon and there were only rumors as to where to get “real” meat, but food that wasn't hay and daisies was less difficult to find among the food merchants of Canterlot by the day, in part to the contributions to the industry made by the Last Anon, something got which he took immense pride in.

>The end of spring was awful. Anon was bound in chains on his way out West, on towards the Human Detention Facility. Things had started so innocently and spiraled out of control so fast.
>One of the humans the Last Anon was living with had managed to procure a barrel of “rotten” apple cider. Except this barrel wasn't “rotten”, it was fermented. The ponies didn't seem to have any concept of alcohol, but the Last Anon and his friends sure did, and they had quite the time emptying the barrel of its contents. Just a cup full, then two, then four, then many, many more.
> And when each Anon had had their fill, they decided to wander the streets for some fresh air. It was here they met a patrolling guard. This particular guard had been having a particularly hard day dealing with a species he particularly did not like : humans. Then here came a group of the filth, gallivanting around at this late hour, loudly talking amongst themselves, surely disturbing the fine ponies of Canterlot. The guard addressed them.
>”Hey you, listen up”
>The group of Anons did not listen
>”Not complying with direct orders from a Royal Guard, eh? That's Obstruction of Justice if I've ever seen it”
>And so it came to pass that the Last Anon and his friends spent the night in lock-up
>It was here their odd behavior was called to attention and a nurse was brought in to examine them
>It turns out, ponies do have a sense of alcohol. And it is very, very illegal

>There was no trial. In the morning, The Last Anon, his three roommates, and the remains of the barrel of hard cider were thrown in front of Celestia who ordered the detainment of the humans at the HDF for no less than a year each.
>Life in the detention center was boring more than anything. Each human had their suit removed and put in to storage and was sealed inside a prison uniform with a number. This number became that Anon's identity for the duration of their stay, something used by the administration to keep all the records straight.
>Thrice a day, each Anon got an hour of free time in shifts. First, they would eat, then they were free to wander around the facility, spend time in the prison's meager library, or go spend time in the heavily fortified “yard”, a small area outside.

>The other inmates had been ecstatic to have a new person to talk to, as very little went on in the HDF and so any bit on new information was pounced on. From them, the Last Anon soon learned the history of the HDF
>Early on, the unicorn members of the royal guard stationed at the HDF maintained together a spell of nonviolence on the place. But then one inmate learned that every attempted act of violence put a drain on the spell and started the first riot, some guards falling unconscious from the exhaustion of keeping the spell maintained. The Captain of the Guard, rumored to be a very powerful Unicorn, had to be rushed in from Canterlot and quelled the riot himself by personally holding on to the nonviolence spell while one-by-one sedating all the prisoners.
>Ever since then, a new policy was put in place. No nonviolence spell, troublemakers were beaten bloody, then sedated, then had time added on to the end of their stay. The more frequent and dangerous the outburst, the longer the duration on the sedative, which made more than a handful of Anons wander around like zombies all the time, acting like automatons made of meat.
>Meals used to come with desserts, usually a pudding cup or something similar. Then Anons started trading them like currency. When the guards had to start stepping in and breaking up the gambling operations that soon followed, the dessert policy was ended.
>There used to be a point system. Every day you were back to your cell on time all three times that day and hadn't been involved in an incident, you got a point. Points could be spent on extra free time outside your cell, extra desserts (for the short while they still had them), or even short walks outside the facility, guarded of course. Then a large enough group of Anons spent their points on free time all at the same time to start overpowering the guards and started the second riot
>There is now no point system.

>Anon passed the time in his cell by exercising how he could and by playing freeform roleplay games with the inmates in the cells around him, a surprisingly popular pastime among his prisonmates
>But there are only so many sit-ups a man can do in a day, only so many imaginary threats he can dispatch before he starts to lose a part of himself
>Months went by. Seasons changed. So did the Last Anon. Where before there had been a sort of exuberance, a determination to keep going no matter the situation, every day chipped away at him until you could hardly tell the difference between himself and the sedated “problem” prisoners.
>Some time in, the Last Anon received as visit from Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. She had come specifically to see the Last Anon to arrive in Equestria. She asked him some questions, about his time in Equestria, how he came to be in the HDF, how his time in the HDF had been. The Last Anon answered these questions to the best of his ability.
>”And what do you intend to do when you leave the HDF?”

>The Last Anon had been thinking on this question since he had arrived. He assumed his position at the Canterlot Library would no longer be open to him and he wouldn't be any better off than the day he first arrived in Equestria.
“I'd like to petition each of the princesses to be in their royal guard. Then I'd like to be stationed here and try to work my way into Administration. The people here, a lot of them are good people, they've just made some mistakes. I'm not saying they should all go free immediately, but any time a minority of them causes trouble the whole group gets punished more severely. If there were some basketball hoops in the Yard, some more books in the library, if we allowed the good prisoners cards or dice, I think we could make life a lot more bearable for a lot of people that were just thrown into a bad situation. They never asked to be tossed into Equestria with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I'd really like to do something to help the human community, and I think that's best done here.”

>Later that day, the Last Anon was released from the HDF on indefinite parole (“Promise you'll never do it again”) on order of Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. That same day Twilight officially formed her own personal royal guard, consisting entirely of humans and naming the Last Anon as Captain of her Guard. He was then assigned to the HDF and, as senior officer, was the new de facto head of administration.
>The quality of life changes the Last Anon had wanted were implemented. A new point system was established. In addition to being back in your cell in a timely manner after free time, points could be earned by working (supervised) shifts in fields the Last Anon had set up outside the prison, with some help from the Princesses. Overall, incidences in the HDF decreased and the happiness of both the population and the guards improved
>For the next 35 years, the Last Anon was head of the HDF. Year after year, fewer humans were sentenced to the HDF, which had never been at full capacity to begin with, as they integrated better into pony society. Eventually, only the worst, the most violent and deranged, those no pony or human could help, were left. They were magically sedated and monitored at all times, but the Last Anon did his best to see that they kept their dignity intact
>The last Anon watched as some humans voluntarily came to live near and work with the compound, soon to be followed by ponies doing the same

>One day, while trying to stop a fight between two inmates that had not quite been sedated enough, the Last Anon was injured, losing the use of one of his legs. While he felt this disqualified him from staying on the front lines, he felt it gave him a great chance to retire. He had been saving his bits wisely and spent his retirement years touring Equestria, seeing all of it's wonders and many of its dangers. Things he had missed all those years spent focusing on the other humans.
>30 years later, a sunbeam shifted through the boughs of an old oak tree just enough to miss Anon's eye. That eye had seen many great works made from ponies and humans working together. It had seen the human population, all male, begin to dwindle. This same eye that had been so offended by a sunbeam 65 years ago to awaken the Last Anon to a world that didn't want him now stared blankly, unseeing, as the Anon behind it ceased to be.
>The Last Anon, Human ex-Captain of the Guard to Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, age unknown,who had been so determined and had in many ways won what he desired, was now dead. He never had learned the origin of his species, nor why he was chosen to be the last among them to visit Equestria, but he had found peace years ago in the knowledge that some questions have no good answers. And now, he was at rest.

>>27819588
excellent short story

http://pastebin.com/3bJsAcsa

Thanks to everyone that's read this far. I don't write green very often, so sorry if it felt "off" in parts. This is an idea I've had kicking around in my head for a while, an equestria ruined for one Anon by all those that came before him.

Feel free to criticize, I'll never get better otherwise

>>27819634
ten outta ten

>>27819588

This was quite a nice story man. I caught myself being absolutely involved in it.

Also great pacing!
Thanks Anon

Just to try to foster a bit of discussion, how would you all have done things differently from the Last Anon in my story? Particularly, how would you have responded to Twilight's question near the end about plans for when you get out of pony prison?

>>27821062
Maybe played a little on the differences between pony world and human world?

File: emberfender.png (699 KB, 900x1275) Image search: [Google]

699 KB, 900x1275

>>27821062
Say the same thing as he did, but later on take what I can and leave in the middle of the night. Use my resources to get to dragon lands, and hang out with Ember and non-racist dragon bros.

File: amagikalplace.jpg (355 KB, 1152x1103) Image search: [Google]

355 KB, 1152x1103

>>27821062
Ask which way is the least populated area, go to library to research, then become hunter/gatherer. Eventually build myself a permanent shelter, and become some sort of herbs seller or something if i need money.

>TL;DR: innawoods

A thread just for one short story?

File: 1443294194638.jpg (18 KB, 320x222) Image search: [Google]

18 KB, 320x222

>>27823879
Better than a shitpost thread. AiE stopped being a containment thread four years ago if you really wanted to know why.

>>27819634
It's really nice. Far better than the drek I read on a daily basis. Actually got so absorbed that I forgot the compulsion to critique it, which is why I don't read shitty fanfic anymore. It's just too draining.

Looking back though, you could have foreshadowed on anon feeling kind of bad for others as much as he felt sorry for himself. Even if he needed to get his basic needs cared for, he still should feel some sympathy for others or else his little speech to Twilight seems a bit more opportunistic than you may have realized. You needed to focus more on feelings and senses, despite the excellent insightful narration. Others may feel it seems a bit dry and impersonal, though that could be the personality of the anon seeping through. And while the lack of personality thing for Anon is a problem for most stories, it worked really well in this one, because it emphasized his being one of many.

Good fucking job faggot. Have a gold star.

>>27824639
Thanks. I see what you mean about foreshadowing the Last Anon's care for the human community more. Looking back, I also made kind of a big deal about the Anons searching for their origins only to come up with nothing. I probably shouldn't have left that thread hanging, though even now I'm not sure how I would fix it. Discord, maybe?

Also, for anyone that enjoyed this story, there's http://pastebin.com/BXW2kfzE
It's a story I wrote about a year ago about an Anon in Equestria that everyone subconsciously hates but they all refuse to admit as much

I just sorta skipped through it all after getting to the laughing guards part, thinking it would just be a 'life is shit' story. Reached the end and I was right.
Can't say I'm impressed.

Every human looking the same, all being male and an absolute shutdown on human utility, ingenuity and cunning over other species - all just made this seem bland from the get-go.

It's why people enjoy AiE in general. What people have difficulty in is telling a story that feels and flows naturally.

>>27825726
>It's a story I wrote about a year ago about an Anon in Equestria that everyone subconsciously hates but they all refuse to admit as much

you must have had a lot of shit on your plate when you were younger