Ever since you turned twenty, you knew one thing that you were certain would occur. Something was going to happen once you came of age and the following events would change you forever. The land would be far away from your friends and family, not even on planet Earth. As you continued, the vision started to become clearer, showing other sentient aliens that would eventually, come and collect you.
No matter how much you wished to tell your parents, friends and family, the embarrassment of being taken for a joke and a nutcase shunted your ideals of spreading your vision. But you knew, with every fibre of your being, that it would happen. One slow year, your hope for this opportunity to arrive had faded. You decided that trying to progress within society was more of a priority. You got a mediocre-paying job, purchased a small flat on the outskirts of town and started talking to your romantic interest that you met at a metal concert.
Considering that nothing happened for a whole year despite such vivid visions, you gave up on the idea of the opportunity arriving. And it was your twenty-first birthday the next day, and you had just finished a shift at work that gave you hope for an enjoyable pay-packet on your next payday. Your parents gave you a call just before you headed to bed, saying that they couldn't wait to see you on your day off.
Your romantic interest also sent you a text message, saying that they wanted to spend some time with you on your birthday, perhaps even greet your family and treat you to a meal out in a fancy restaurant. You had a hot shower like you do every night before you head to bed, and you decided to watch My Little Pony before you fell asleep, as you found the latest edition of My Little Pony to be your guilty pleasure. Selecting the latest episode, you climbed into your comfy bed in front of your TV and you watched the active and troublesome adventures of these cartoon characters.
Feeling your eyelids closing slowly, you resulted to prematurely ending the episode, turning the TV off and having a very peaceful sleep before you are faced with the hectic day that is your twenty-first birthday. You glance at the clock quickly before nodding off, seeing that it is only nine-thirty in the evening. You calculate that you can achieve ten hours of sleep and still be awake for an early time.
Your head hits the pillow, and you are within your dreams before you realise.
You are flying through the clouds, with nothing but your reign of your dreams carrying you. Your worries of your past life are now forgotten, as you forge your own world within this space you call your mind. Your pyjama top flaps in the pleasantly warm wind that is ever so calm, despite phasing through multiple clouds above an idyllic oasis surrounded by endless calm sea.
Oddly, clouds begin to contort and rumble, rocking the fibres of your being. It felt strange, but you decided it must have been a small part of your subconscious trying to liberate you from your own dream. You continue to circle your perfect island, until thunder rocks you from within the clouds and startles you, causing you to plummet to the ground before you regain stability and hover inches before the ground. Looking up, you can see clouds swirl and form together, creating the essence of a supercell, free from your control.
A bright flash of lightning crashes before you, warping you into a tunnel of confusion and disorienting bright lights, landing you within your bed as you feel the cold sweat drip from your brow. Feeling your freedom and lucidity slip from you, instinct tells you to move a muscle, checking for hypnagogia. Your eyes move open, and a lightening flash similar to the bolt within the dream crashes above you, scorching your walls and deafening your ears.
Terror jolts your spine, and you are too frightened to move. But survival instinct demands that you double-take, as you do not want to continue falling victim to hypnogogic hallucinations. You force yourself to sit up, and do so with liberating ease. You have known for years that trying to move during sleep paralysis is a futile effort, and that was easily achieved. You sit up and glance around your pitch black room, staring near where the lightning bolt originated.
Moments are silent, and nothing stirs as your mind remains alert, scanning for the disturbance that disrupted that rather peaceful slumber of yours. Your mind is unconvinced that anything truly happened. That is until you look up towards the wall beside you, and using the eerie moonlight slightly illuminating your bedroom, you scan the wall and discover that the burn mark is still evident. Wiping your eyes, you investigate closer, kneeling on your bed to physically touch the scorch on your wall.
Your fingers glide across the smooth wallpaper until you feel a hot sensation on the tip of your fingers which cause you to reel your fingers back in pain. That cannot be possible, you must have had a reawakening within your dream. You reach for your phone and activate the small flashlight that is on the front, shining it on the wall. The burn is definitely there, no doubt about it. Problem is that you have no idea what caused it. If it were an electrical fault, the arcing would have continued and eventually would have sparked a house fire, and that would be dead obvious.
Before you can question anything else further, another bright flash of light appears, shocking your retinas and causing you to shut your eyes in a wild panic, throwing your arms around you to cover your face and neck. But your ears are not covered, and you can hear the arc strike something electrical within the room as that object temporarily fluctuates with activity and then overloads, tripping the breakers within the flat.
You look again, and there are scorch marks all over the middle of your bedroom and your TV is now a smoking pile of melted plastic and electronics. Something is definitely going on here, so you climb out of bed and hastily run over towards your window, sweat dripping from your brow. Another crackle of electricity bounces across the room, ricocheting from anything metallic, but not going anywhere towards your position.
In your state of panic, your eyes have adjusted towards the bright light and you can actually see what looks like an event horizon of electricity has formed near your bedroom wall across from you and is now holding it's integrity. You decide to not move closer, as there is still bolts of electricity still ricocheting around the edges of this electric circle. You notice that the bolts are reducing in frequency, as the edges of the event horizon slowly creep larger. After a few moments of staring at this unbelievable phenomenon with the ever-present buzzing of the electrical sounds keeping you on edge, you notice the circle is now an oval shape and is now seven feet high by three feet wide.
Soon, the bolts and arcing stop completely, along with the electrical sounds fading to a simple hum, leaving this oval-shaped electrical ring floating in front of you. As you are about to move, the electricity shimmers a shade of purple and some form of illusion begins to protrude from the walls towards the centre as if this were some sort of twisted electrical mirror. The illusional material that has now coated the entirety of the oval ring begins to shift colours and transparency, and shows shocking resemblance towards deep space nebulae and star graveyards. The material shimmers in odd opacity, as the outer electrical ring ceases to shimmer with a purple shade.
Not long after the shimmering stops, you see a white object protrude from the illusional material and softly lands on your wooden floor, followed by a second, which you quickly realise is actually legs, covered in brilliant white fur. As your eyes process what is going on, the rest of the foreign body continues to morph through the material and within a few seconds, you have a seven-foot tall winged unicorn stood before you, with its horn glowing within a shimmer of yellow. It looks upon you with delicate eyes, as you stand there frozen in place. You think that you must still be dreaming. You shut your eyes tight and re-open them to discover that the winged unicorn is still stood before you.
You start to analyse the being before you and you see that the mane and tail glows a rainbow of colours and is flowing ethereal as if it is from space itself. You notice the regalia that is presented on the chest, along with the shoes upon it's hooves. You finally glance at the horn and facial features of this mystical visitor and you soon realise that it is wearing a golden crown upon its head. Images snap together within your head and you coldly recognise that this being is actually very similar to Princess Celestia from My Little Pony, the show you watched before bed.
As you watch the hair, the shimmering electrical ring and the glowing rainbow that is projected from behind her, you also realise that this is very similar to the vision you have relived countless times within your mind. In fact, you are certain that this is what your vision was trying to tell you all along. Even after your faith in your vision was completely faded, this is what was meant to happen.
"Ahh, you are the lucky Human that was blessed with The Mark."
Your mind remained fixated on Princess Celestia's mane and tail flow until the velvet-like words tumbled out of her mouth and blessed your ears. You had so many questions, you didn't know what to say, and you continued to stare in utter disbelief.
"In our culture, when we don't know who a certain somepony is, we proclaim them to be anonymous. As I don't know your name and will possibly not become relevant, I will now name you Anonymous." Princess Celestia spoke once again.
This time, your train of thought had enough momentum to form logical questions, instead of that creepy stare you have given her since she arrived.
"Who are you...?" You mumble slowly, still backing yourself towards the window that you realise has been latched shut... From the outside.
"I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria and the watchful eye that guards and protects all of my glorious little ponies. I believe this is what you Humans would call... First contact? As I am not of your race and we are both intellectually sentient." Princess Celestia proclaimed no louder than a casual indoor voice.
"And what is this 'Mark' that you spoke of?" You mutter again, but keeping a steady stance as you feel the adrenaline and potential fear fade away slowly.
"Years ago, I assigned a task to one of my most ingenious unicorns. I wanted to bless another race out there with powers that are quite common within magical encounters. After a few attempts, he said that he could do one more before burning out the limited technology that we had at our disposal. He cut many corners and breached various Magical Behaviour Agreements, but he finally said that the last attempt was a success. We knew where you were but were not able to contact you until your physical body had reached it's highest potential. We named it The Mark and we knew that two powers were transmitted to you personally." Celestia continued, walking away from the space-like mirror.
"And what is that?" You say as you point at the mirror.
"That, is a portal that my apprentice has constructed for me using the best resources at our disposal. It was prepared for me for this exact moment. But I believe that spacetime where I originally reside is much slower for us, explaining how generations of ponies have came and gone within your short lifetime. For them, I will be gone for months. But for you and I, mere minutes." Celestia said, a little guiltily.
"So what are you here for?" You finally ask, wondering what your vision had to do with all this magical mumbo-jumbo.
"I would personally like to invite you to come with me back to my homeland, and live among us for as long as you wished. As I told you, years can pass and it could be no longer than a day in your time. Let me quickly analyse using the orbit of your sun."
Celestia rose her head and her horn lit up again in that golden yellow glow as she concentrated with visible signed on her face. You had no idea what she was doing, but something told you to just wait and see what she said.
"The percentage of time-flow for our homelands is vastly different. 0.05% of your time to be precise. Your time accelerates two thousand times faster than ours so that one second in your would will grant you 33 minutes in ours. Within the space of your twelve hours, 999 days will pass in ours."
Your mind was spinning with the possibilities that were possible. You could live near one thousand days within their world and only twelve hours would pass by. As if you had a very lazy lay in on your birthday.
"Please hurry, as my presence is greatly missed and I need to return to my ponies as quickly as I can. Will you come with me back to my world?" Celestia asked with a great deal of haste within her voice, occasionally glancing back into the portal.
It was then, you felt something awaken within you. Naturally, if someone bestowed this honour upon them, they would walk through the portal, no questions asked. But you felt as if you had a choice. Nothing tied you down, and you could simply go back to bed, without not caring in the slightest.
With Celestia staring deeply into your eyes, you had to come up with a decision towards your choice, as time was very precious.
Follow Princess Celestia into the portal.
OR
Decline the request and head back to bed.
You decide to follow Celestia into the portal, and embrace a lifestyle away from your normal home for at least three years. Or twelve hours, depending on how you looked upon the situation.
"Yes, I will agree to come with you to your world," You say with slight confidence as you feel that weird ability fades away again.
"Excellent, then let us make haste, I have been gone for far too long."
Celestia quickly motioned for you to enter before she did, giving you a warm smile. You stand before the weird portal and stare deep within the various constellations and galaxies that are visible just from here. You place one hand forward and you feel the space material bend around your physical being before you are eventually pulled within.
Your vision grows dark, and you cannot recall how long you were in that portal, but you quickly black out and you seem to have no other memory of that event.
You finally awaken within a makeshift bed, staring at what seems to be a castle ceiling. Taking a quick glance around, you see that only Princess Celestia is in your presence.
"Good morning, Anonymous." Princess Celestia says proudly, looking at you warmly.
You grunt and shuffle as your consciousness creeps back to you, granting you movement once again. You quickly sit up and observe the room that you are in. It looks to be like a laboratory that has seen it's fair share of experiments, but do not look daunting in the slightest.
"Hello, Princess. May I ask where I am?" You ask politely, covering yourself up with the covers you were supplied with.
"Of course. You are now residing within Princess Twilight's laboratory, within her castle. Do not panic, we did not wish to move you away from the portal without your own accord."
You turn around and you can see the portal is still open, connected by what you must assume to be their alternative to power supplies.
"I'm free to leave as I wish?" You ask, shuffling around in your surprisingly comfy bed.
"From both this room and this world if you truly wished. But I truly believe that if you didn't want to come, you wouldn't have accepted my invitation."
Somehow, you knew she was right. If you wanted to go back to bed, you would have done it. As you are still within your clothes, you get up out of bed and straighten your clothes out before standing before Princess Celestia.
"Welcome to Equestria. This will be your home. Let me introduce you to my friends and family."
Celestia shows you that warm smile you are becoming fond of and begin to follow her out of the laboratory, leaving the bed and the portal behind. You walk up a flight of steps and exit through what looks like a door comprised of crystal. You begin to gather that this world must be nearly identical to that of which you saw on the countless episodes of My Little Pony. Just as you think that the pony that strongly resembles Twilight Sparkle approaches you from her large table.
"Twilight, this is Anonymous. He is the visitor from another world and the one that received the infamous Mark." Celestia said with graciousness.
Twilight near enough does a backflip and runs up to you, about to barrage you with questions. And before she can do that, Celestia interrupts her before she can even introduce herself.
"Yes, The Mark that Starswirl bestowed upon him, no he does not live for thousands of years and yes, the time space disruption is that strong, minutes there are days here. Hence why I was gone for two full days."
"Wait, we were only in my bedroom for about ninety seconds! How could you have been gone for two whole days!?" You ask, utterly surprised.
"Again, the spacetime disruption is very strong." Celestia repeats.
"Ohmygosh, I have so many questions about your culture, who you are and ohmygosh, wow!" Twilight exclaims due to loss of self-control.
Clearing her throat, she starts herself again.
"My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you can address me as Twilight if you liked." Twilight smiles, with her best formal face possible.
"Nice to meet you Twilight. My name is... Anonymous..?" You say hesitantly as you look towards Celestia for confirmation and she simply nods in agreement.
"It is great to meet you, Anonymous. I have so many questions, but I think you must have more, so I shall let Princess Celestia continue with her introduction to Equestria before I pester you any further. See you later on, Anon!" She shouts as she trots back to her large table that is surrounded by six large thrones and one smaller throne beside the one that Twilight is sat on. You look at Celestia with the bewildering look.
"I'll explain another time."
She guides you towards the large doors that grant the entrance to the outside world. With the hum of her magic, the doors slowly revolve open and you are blinded by the immediate sunlight.
After regaining sight after a few seconds, you look around the peaceful and serene town that is presented before you.
"This town is called Ponyville. Home to The Elements of Harmony."
Due to watching the show, you instantly recognise the names Ponyville and Elements of Harmony. You slowly walk down the stairs onto the gravel pathway that leads to the castle from the main town.
"Such a quiet little town. Must be peaceful as ever living here." You say, staring around the town and noticing the various Unicorn and Pegasus ponies minding their own business.
"It is indeed. But let me show you something." Celestia says and guides you off the gravel track and onto the grass, into a seemingly random direction.
"Lookup at the mountain. Can you see my castle?" Celestia asks, staring at the mountain.
You also look up and scan the mountain until you see the obvious white and cream castle that is perched on the side of the mountain, in all of its elegance.
"Woah, that is your castle?" You exclaim, still staring at the raw beauty of architecture.
"Yes, Canterlot Castle. I reside there along with my sister, Princess Luna. It also houses many other ponies too. And this leads me onto the next topic that I need to discuss with you." Celestia says, looking down at you once again.
"Yes, what is it?" You say, finally looking at Celestia.
"Despite what little you have seen of both Ponyville and Canterlot, I would like to have your opinion of where you would most likely like to reside during your time here."
That odd feeling rises again, and you know that you could live in Canterlot and live with the co-rulers of the entire country, feeling like a king. But you could also live in Ponyville, surrounded by tranquility and the opportunity to make friends with many other ponies without all the hassle of travelling to and from home.
Live in Ponyville with The Elements of Harmony (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
OR
Live in Canterlot with The Regal Sisters (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
