>As the twenty two Anons consider their hopes and dreams for the coming year a nigh audibly pink voice pierces the low din of their introspective mumbling. >”Oooh hey guys what’s this” The chipper voice asks as Pinkie Pie bounces up out of the corner of the room back towards the group, a shimmering blue orb nestled in her cotton candy mane. “I couldn’t say” >Sun replies as he stoopes over his frizzy haired special somepony to examine the curious azure sphere. >it’s surface seemed almost fluid as it sat nestled in pinkie’s mane, and perhaps it’s nothing more than a trick of the light as it shifted across the surface of the glimmering object but he almost thought he could see something moving within its depths >Sun frowns as the bauble's secrets elude his gaze. This will not stand >He thinks before breaking into a mischievous grin. “Well there’s really only one way to know for sure.” >He says, plucking the ball from its poofy resting place. >As Sun’s fingers wrap around the sphere it responds to his touch and begins to glow from within. >For a split second Sun can see images flashing within the sphere as the light grows brighter and brighter. >As it grows the brilliant light sends shadows flashing across the castles glittering walls as it dances across the faces of the attendees until finally even the flickering shadows are consumed as a pure infinite whiteness fills the room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPsNbApSYMY >Out of the incandescence music begins to play, seeming to spill from the very space itself as the brilliant light resolves into images. >You see an Anon, much like the 22 of you napping under a tree at sweet apple acres only for Applejack to tell him off for sleeping on the job. >Immediately the scene shifts and you find Anon alone standing alone on a tower of stained glass which stands solitary in an infinite abyss, the only lights seeming to come from a small pinpoint in the darkness overhead and from within the tower itself illuminating a brilliant mural of twilight sparkle upon which anon now stands. >You barely have time to register the look of confusion and fear upon Anon’s face as the shadows around him seem to come to life and pull themselves up from the floor, surrounding him before you are whisked off to somewhere else. >once again you find yourselves watching Anon, nearly crying tears of joy as he throws his arms around the necks of Applejack and Rarity, the twinkling lights of an unfamiliar city surrounding the trio. >The relief he feels is so palpable you can practically taste it as he says “I thought I had lost you two for good” but when he hears that they have no idea where the other girls are he visibly deflates and the scene fades from view. >You find the trio on the roof of a towering statuary adorned skyscraper as the sun sets over a sprawling metropolis. >They appear to be surveying the city below as the sun dips below the horizon when cracks begin to form in a nearby Gargoyle. > Rarity shrieks as the cracks race out across the statue and a living creature casts off the thin layer of splintered stone that had been coating it as it bellows into the night. >You see Anon Rarity and AJ in a coliseum fighting what looks to be a squad of animated suits of armor. Their movements are unnaturally stiff and jerky as they lunge at the trio with long black blades protruding from the ends of their arms. > surprisingly Anon deftly avoids the attack as rarity holds aloft a diamond tipped staff with her magical grip calling down a bolt of lightning on the hapless foe. >Anon then bounds of the suspended staff like the rung of a ladder and leaps into the air as Applejack bucks another of the inhuman knights into the air towards Anon. >Anon summons his glowing blade again, its form obscured in the flash of light that heralds its arrival, and catches the creature across its waspish midsection slamming it into the ground when he lands causing it to explode in a burst of purple smoke as a glowing pink heart floats off into the sky. >You blink and you find Anon and a pair of ponies wearing space suits magnetized to the hull of some monolithic structure as they fight more of the shadows you saw before. >One of the ponies stumbles and a creature lunges at her trying to finish her off. Anon leaps to her defense as what appears to be a sword takes shape in his hand in a flash of brilliant light. >He succeeds in protecting his fallen comrade but the force of the blow knocks him from the hull and sends him tumbling through space. The two ponies turn to him and call out in a silent scream, but just as all seems lost a flash of light twinkles at the far end of the station and a short broad chested man in a bulky green and white space suit with a glass domed helmet swoops in with a purple winged rocket pack and catches anon pulling him back from the void of empty space. >“get behind me citizens” his voice crackles over the suits coms as he stands between the trio and the encroaching creatures and brings up his right arm, a light on his wrist shimmering as the capacitors in his suit charge his weapon. >The red glow of the charging laser blinds you momentarily and you find yourself looking at the blazing tail light of a speeding muscle car. >Inside Pinkie Pie slams a cartridge into the supercar’s injection chamber as she flashes Anon a thumbs with a oversized foam hand and the nitrous gauge on the dash roars to life. >The car’s tires squeal as it flies over the abandoned rusting highways of old Detroit chasing after the cerulean hot rod ahead of them. > As your point of view pans forward you can see an unconscious rainbow dash inside as some kind of hose feeding back to the fuel tank rises up out of the seat and binds her there. >The shadowy figure driving the car stomps on the gas and greasy black smoke starts to pour from the hotrod's exhaust as it pulls away. >You see anon running down a hallway alone chasing after a mare in a heavy black cloak. Her face is hidden but it seems as though anon knows her. >Finally you see anon standing resolute, with some of the same friends you’ve come to know and love over the past two years standing beside him as the music swells and they stare up at the end of their journey only for the image to flash back to anon sleeping under a tree at Sweet Apple Acres. >the music fades and the light dims, Sun and the other Anons find themselves back in twilight’s castle. “OH SHIT! Would someone care to explain what the fuck we just saw?” >Justice shouts as Sun rolls his eyes >The new Magician simply shrugs and turns towards Luna” “I have no clue, but you seem to be the one with all the answers tonight.” >Luna nods and scrunches her nose in thought for a moment. >”If I had to guess, what Sun holds in his hand is a fragment of another world.” Luna finally says after a long pause. >As she continues she envelopes the now dull and lifeless sphere with her magic and begins to examine it “Another world, with another Anon who went on another adventure entirely from the one you experienced” >”Or perhaps will have went is the better term, time is so relative when one is speaking cross dimensionally. “ > “It must have found its way here when magician was pulled to this reality” Luna says as she passes the orb back to sun. ”At any rate its harmless now”, Luna says with a sigh as she sits down. “Whatever glimpse of that world the orb offered, It seems that was the end of it.” “But, that other Anon seemed in over his head. Are you sure there’s nothing we can do? ” >strength asks, his brow furled, concern apparent through his tough guy façade “Yeah He may not be one of us in the traditional sense, but he’s still an Anon and that makes him one of us” >Star says stubbornly as he crosses his arms and looks to the other Anons who nod their head in agreement. >Luna seems lost in thought as she considers your request. >She sits thinking for several minutes as the Anons stare at her expectantly. >before she leaps to her feat sending a couple of anons tumbling back in shock “Son of a Bitch!” >Death shouts from the crystalline floor as Luna rushes around the castle returning with a large blank tome borrowed from twilight’s library and some spare siverware. >”Behold” she shouts as her horn glows and a deep blue light envelopes the book and the sphere. When the magic fades you find the sphere bound to the spine of the tome with fresh silver fittings as the orb shimmers once again with a magical luster. >“Problem solved!” exclaims a clearly quite pleased with herself Luna “solved how exactly?” >Death asks from the floor >”I’ve given you a window into this other Anon’s life” Luna explains, “with this you shall be able to read along with his adventures and even reach out and offer guidance by writing back, if need be.” “we’ll try to keep our shitposting to a minimum” >lust shouts from the back of the crowd as twilight runs up to examine the book >“ohmigoshhowdidyoucramawholeworldinabookthisisamazing”, her words running together as she spits questions at the princess of the night at a million miles a minute. >”I will answer all your questions in the morning twilight, right now we really must conclude these resolutions before it gets any later.” she says as she turns back to crowd of anons >”Regardless of whatever new adventures this book represents, my question still stands. What do you wish to make of yourself this coming year?” Luna asks the group a second time >Death springs up off the floor shouting, “World domination! Soon all will bow bef-“ >Death’s wild gesticulations are brought to an abrupt halt as Justice slaps him in the back of the head, cutting his monologue short “Like hell you will, choose something more reasonable” >He says as death rubs the back of his head pouting “Come on just a little world conquest, you know it’d be fun” >he needles as the two of them return to the crowd and continue to consider what the year may bring. >As the Anons contemplate their fate and celebrate the birth of their newest brother wheels continue to turn in another world much like their own. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NwqltJa0vY >Another side, Another story >Another nightmare night full of its own potential. You find yourself in Canterlot Castle in the chambers of Princess Celestia. The window stands ajar and the room empty as Celestia had flown off hours ago to celebrate the holiday with her most loyal student and the rest of the elements of harmony >On her desk you find a letter fluttering gently in the cool autumn breeze held in place by the princess’s ink well. Dearest Sister, Please forgive me for leaving so suddenly, but trouble is brewing, and I fear we’ve no time to lose. I'm not sure why, but the stars have been blinking out... one by one. I hate to leave you after having been so recently rejoined, but I must investigate this. As the princess of then night, I have a favor to ask of you and the elements... Look after the newcomer Anonymous, I don’t know how but I have the feeling he may be the key—the key to our survival. I need you and the girls to stick with him, for without him, I fear we’re all doomed! So watch over him and keep him safe, I’ll rejoin you as soon as I can. P.S. Please express my apologies to Anonymous and the girls over missing this year’s nightmare night -Luna >Outside the window in Luna’s shimmering tableau of stars filling the night sky you can see one wink out.