I can’t remember much about my life before Equestria. When I look back to that time in my life I find that I can’t remember anything that would make me want to go back. Not that I am looking for a reason, I am extremely happy with the way that my life turned out. It’s amusing to me that I find humor in the irony of that last line. Before I was taken to Equestria, I never thought I would enjoy being taken from Earth with all its advanced technology and diverse ideals to be thrown into an almost completely alien world that I had almost zero interest in. Truly, the only reason I knew anything about this world when I first awoke was because of my profession as an artist. Though, if I had to say one thing that has been a constant interest for me on both Earth and Equestria I would have to go with my artistic abilities. It was my source of income on Earth, however it became more of a hobby in Equestria. Though, even on Earth I greatly enjoyed the satisfaction that it brought me. Again it is ironic that the thing that brought the most satisfaction to me on Earth would open a door to a world that I thought was merely a necessary evil in my life. A hoop that I had to jump through to get to a better place in the voyage that is my existence.

-Daus Skarr

**************

It was dark… too dark.

The damn thing was always just a little off. I had been working on the sketch for weeks now, and every time I thought that I had it, I’d see something else that I didn’t like about it.

I growled and grabbed an eraser. I didn’t even know why I was drawing the damn thing. It’s not like I didn’t have other projects that I needed to finish, and I wasn’t even getting paid for this!

Which reminds me, I have to pay rent sometime in the next few days…

I grimaced as I felt the familiar tug of the eraser on the paper. I didn’t particularly enjoy the apartment I had, one bedroom, one bathroom, and a living room wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. Still the landlord did seem to get an annoyingly smug attitude when he decided to come pay a visit to “his” apartment to kindly ask if you were planning on staying here past 5pm tonight… I had been much better about getting him rent after that. Especially after he threatened to raise the rent 50 dollars for every day I was overdue.

I sighed as I threw the eraser down, sat back, and frowned at my latest obsession. After that last episode with my landlord I had gone out on the internet to find some way that I could make more money. For an art major in Seattle finding a job should have been easy. I specialized in digital art, sketch it first to work out the kinks then draw it on the computer, touch it up with Photoshop, and then I move on with my life.

However, finding a job had proven difficult. All the big companies had wanted people with more experience, and for a 22 year old guy just out of College, experience was just about the only thing I lacked.

Oh, and money, can’t forget that, it’s kind of important.

At my last interview, my perspective employer had suggested I get out on the internet and do some freelancing, make a name for myself. So that’s what I did, and over the past 2 years I had made a name for myself… just not with the audience that I had expected.

At first I had been confused as to the nature of the requests that I was getting. It had only been a few weeks since I had opened up my Deviantart account and posted that I would draw anything for money, just send me a message or email detailing what you wanted and I’d message back with a price. Then I had started getting requests for drawings of a… strange nature.

The first had been a request to draw a “Twilight Sparkle” which I had promptly skipped, I was already working on some other projects and had more backed up in my inbox, so I felt comfortable skipping a request when I had no idea what it was asking for. I, however, was not going to be ignorant for long.

After a few weeks I was running out of requests that I could do without researching whatever was requested. So, I decided to figure out what this “Twilight Sparkle” was. It didn’t sound like a person, so whatever it was I doubted I was going to have to be drawing someone, which was good, I have the most difficulty with faces.

After googling the name several times I was forced to conclude one thing…

Twilight Sparkle is a pony.

After realizing this the first thought that went through my head was, “Why the heck am I getting so many requests for a pony?”

After doing more research on Twilight Sparkle I found out that she was the main character in a kids show called My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and that much of the other requests that I had gotten had been for her friends in the show, plus many of the other characters. At first this had blown my mind, who the heck wants to hire a freelancer to draw a character from a show that their daughter watches? Then I found a link on Google to something called a brony, thinking that it was something from the show I clicked it.

After reading the article that the link brought up I had to turn off my computer and go get some fresh air.

After digesting the fact that some guys, usually around my age, actually enjoy watching a show meant for little girls, I came back and promptly denied all the requests for anything relating to the show and posted that I would not ever be drawing anything that had anything to do with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

However, you don’t always get what you what.

About a month after I closed the door on the idea of drawing ponies I was in a tough spot. My rent was due at the end of the week and I wasn’t going to make it. My landlord, sensing weakness, was taking every chance to smirk in my direction, and make comments like, “I hear that the homeless shelter has some space open,” or, “Looking a little thin there, have you been eating well lately?” and generally just being a jerk (I mean seriously, show me a landlord who isn’t a jerk). This, on top of the fact that I really hadn’t been eating well lately, prompted me to revise my stance on the ponies.

After opening the door for pony requests my inbox was flooded, and I easily made enough money to pay rent by the end of the week and eat something other than ramen noodles for a change. Granted the first few projects were a little sloppy, but after I made rent I was able to spend more time on the requests.

Now, I’m not a brony but after I got over the initial trepidation that I had for the show I did watch a few of the episodes- only to get a feel for the characters! I had been getting complaints that my Pinkie Pies were a little flat… I understood why after watching a few episodes.

Fast forward 2 years to the present and 4 out of the 5 projects I’m currently working on are related in some way to the show, as I’ve taken to calling it. Apparently the bronies like the way I draw their ponies.

However, despite the fact that my rent was due in the next few days, and that I had 5 other projects to work on, I was still working on this damn sketch.

I looked away from the sketch to check my phone, 1:26am.

“Crap,” my frown deepened when I saw the time, “at least I don’t have to get up early tomorrow.”

The first thing I’ll do tomorrow when I get up is finish that Pinkie project I’ve had for a while now. If this… thing will let me go for a couple hours.

I eye balled the sketch. It was just a sphere that was missing a piece, like when you cut up an apple into slices, except whoever decided to cut this up left the rest intact and walked away with their piece of hard-to-freaking-draw-thing. I hadn’t even done anything other than the orb except for a vague background and floor. The thing seemed to be floating a few feet above the ground, I wasn’t even sure anymore. It was like the sketch was slowly revealing itself to me piece by piece. I had tried to stop, had even thrown it away once… which had resulted in me rummaging through my trash at 4 in the morning.

All I knew was that I had to finish it, why I don’t know.

I stared at the thing for a few more minutes, before deciding to throw in the towel and call it a night. Just as I was getting up, though, the blank part I had just erased caught my eye. Something about it…

A glare maybe?

Yea… that’s it… the glare suggests that that there’s a strong light source somewhere off the page to the left… as if over my left shoulder…

After working for a few minutes I was happy with the results, at least I think I was. I didn’t feel like I needed to change anything about the sketch at any rate.

Not yet at least…

With that sobering thought I stood and stretch, hearing some joints pop. Then walked to my small bathroom to get ready for bed. I undressed then got in the shower, after enjoying the water for a few minutes I finished up, dried myself off, and threw on some cloths. On the way out I caught myself in the mirror. Short black hair, electric-blue eyes, fairly plain face, about 5ft 4in. I got closer to the mirror and rubbed my hand across my face.

“I should probably shave,” then I shrugged, ”I don’t have to be anywhere tomorrow.”

I walked out of the bathroom and looked out into the main room. After seeing that the light I was using to work was still on I walked back to my drawing table.

As I approached my work station I noticed that I had never gone through my mail from… yesterday. I sighed and grabbed the stack off the edge of my desk and began to flip through it. It being about 2 in the morning, I wasn’t paying much attention to what was in front of me. However, one thing did catch my eye. A letter from my land lord, never a good sign.

I tore it open and glanced over it, my eyes growing wiper and more panicked the farther down the letter I got.

The basic gist over the letter was: rent is due today (yesterday) at 12, which was roughly 2 hours ago.

I threw on some socks and my boots in a hurry, wrote out a check that made me wince as I jotted down the amount. On the way out the door I stopped. Turning around I grabbed my head phones off of my work station and jammed them onto my head, adjusting them so that they were comfortable over my ears. I seemed to see my land lord just as often with them on as without them, by design of course, nothing tells someone “I don’t want to talk” quite like a pair of head phones.

At the door I pulled on my coat and stepped out into the hall locking the door behind me. As I walked down the hall I mumbled, “I had better not be evicted for this…”

30 minutes, and a disgruntled land lord, later I walked back into my apartment, a smug look on my face. I had caught my land lord as he was walking up to his apartment on the floor above. Well, with the way I was almost flying down the stairs, it’s more like I collided with him rather than caught him. However, the important thing is that I had paid for my apartment… semi on time.

As I waked further into my apartment, electing to leave my jacket on due to the cold weather outside, I saw that I had never turned off the lamp that I used to work on the various projects that I had. As I walked up to the table to turn the lamp off I saw the sketch of the sphere sitting there, as if waiting for me to come back and work on it some more. I frowned at it while reaching for the light switch on the lamp. I almost made it to, but something about the sketch…

“Just a few more minutes…” I mumbled as I sat down.

*******

I could feel the weight of my eye lids pushing down, begging to close.

But I was so close.

I had to keep going.

In two hours I had gotten more work done on the sketch than I had done in the several weeks since I had started working on it. Everything was sharply defined, the stone floor, the stone brick wall in the background, the darkly shaded curtains framing the glass windows that opened out to a beautiful starry night sky and a medieval city made of stone and trimmed in gold…

Gold? You can’t draw gold with a pencil.

I put that thought out of my mind as I keep working, everything was coming together. Just have to shade here…

a few strokes there…

and then…

finally…

it’s done.

As I stared at the finished sketch I couldn’t help but feel that it was moving slightly. The motions seemed almost hypnotic, captivating me, drawing me in.

The orb floated a few feet above the ground, still missing a piece but that was fine. It was supposed to be missing a piece. A bright white light was coming from above and behind my left shoulder, while a dark beam of light came from above and behind my right shoulder. The orb was bobbing and turning slightly and the two beams of light engulfed it. I could heard the high pinch whine of the energy as it surged around me and collided with the sphere. The energies mixed and morphed to complete the dull grey sphere, then it slowly faded away. Once the orb was gone the twin beams of light disappeared.

It was at that moment that I realized that I was now standing and that I was no longer in my apartment in Seattle.

I moaned as a wave of fatigue hit me and my knees gave out. I crashed to the hard stone floor and heard several people run up to me from behind. Something was off though, their running sounded strange. Almost like they had metal strapped to the bottom of their feet, but not quite. I felt like I had heard the sound before, I know I had, but before I could place it I blacked out from exhaustion.

Author's Note

The cover art for this story is not mine, and I didn't model this character off myself or anyone else.

Just had to get that out of the way.

Alright, I can't believe that I am finally writing this. I have been planning out this story for months and I just kept putting it off. It took me 5 months just to finish the first entry, don't worry though I won't update that slow.

I guess that means I have to actually start writing on a regular basis...

In all seriousness though I have planned much of the major points of the story out already, as well as the way things work (such as magic) and the political structure of Equestria etc, etc... mostly things that will be mentioned in passing but add depth to the story.

Because of this I will most likely not take into account any suggestions in the comments, sorry. Feel free to throw your thoughts out there though, you never know, I may like your idea. That being said constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated, however, I would ask that you please not bash the story just because you don't like it. If you don't like it, don't read it.

Also, this fic starts between the 3rd and 4th season, if you wanted to know.

Anyway, here's to my first fic! If you like it you will be here for a while! I'm talking a WHILE, I already have a rough outline for two sequels planned out.