“Mhm, mhm, yeah. Alright then, I’ll see you in a bit.”

I sighed as I hung up the phone, a huge grin on my face. The set of rings I had ordered were finally finished, and would be here in about an hour. Unfortunately for my admittedly over-excited self that meant I still had an hour to kill before they arrived, so to pass the time I turned on the TV to something mildly interesting, and got out my laptop.

For the first thirty minutes or so I occupied myself by just surfing the web, I read some fanfics here, watched some music videos there, basic time killing stuff, but I couldn’t get my mind off of the rings that were coming in, so I finally gave in to my inability to concentrate on anything else and pulled up the designs that I had made for the rings.

The rings themselves were fairly plain, there were three pairs of them so that each hand would have an identical set of rings. All of them had simple iron bands with a celtic knot pattern engraved into them and each one had a large clear piece of cubic zirconia set on top, I would have preferred diamond but that would have cost far too much. What made them interesting, however, was that the gemstones had transmutation circles engraved into them, a different one for each pair.

I had ordered them as a sort of gift for myself, and they were designed after the rings worn by one of my favorite original characters from a Fullmetal Alchemist roleplay site that I used to be active on. I’m not really sure why I decided to get them now, but when my friend told me that he worked for a custom jewelry store, I just couldn’t seem to resist asking him about it.

I was brought out of my reverie by someone knocking at my door. I shut my laptop and jumped up, rushing to open the door. When I did I was greeted by the sight of my friend, who was carrying a box with the label for his custom jewelry shop slapped on.

He held out the box for me as he spoke, “Hey man, I got your rings here, but I can’t stay. We just got a huge order and my boss wants me to come in today to help them start working on it.”

I grinned as I took the box. “No problem, just let me grab my wallet so I can pay you.”

He shook his head as he turned to leave, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll just send you the bill later, I really don’t have the time to spare. Anyway, I’ll see ya.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could get a word out he was running down the stairs of the apartment complex, so I just shrugged and closed the door.

I shook my head as I sat down at my dining table and began to rip open the box. The issue with the bill would be one for another day.

My grin returned as I pulled the rings out, though it shrank a bit when I saw that something was off with their themes. For some reason they seemed to stand out more than, well anything around me. It was almost as if the rings were more real than everything else. I shrugged and put them on anyway, assuming that it was just a trick of the light or something. I held out my hands and flexed them, pleased with the way the rings felt on my fingers.

I jumped when I heard a knock at the door, “What? I shouldn't have any more visitors today.”

I frowned as I stood up, but before I could start walking I was hit with a wave of vertigo. I tried to reach out to grab my chair to balance myself, but my hand only met empty air as I fell backwards into darkness.

As such, I never got to see my friend poke his head into my apartment, holding a very familiar box and looking somewhat confused at the lack of anyone answering the door.

“Uh, Aaron, you home? Huh, I guess something must have come up, I’ll just leave this here and get the payment later.”

“What do you think it is?”

“Ah don’t know, but it’s mighty funny lookin’ if ya ask me.”

“Hey, I know! Let’s poke it with a stick to see if it’s alive!”

“Hey now, Ah don’t think my sister would approve of us pokin strange things in the forest.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Rarity would like that either.”

“Oh come on, you two—”

I groaned as I came to. My awakening was interrupted, though, as I heard three young voices suddenly eep in surprise. My eyes shot open to reveal, not the ceiling of my apartment, but rather a clear blue sky peeking through the trees.

Well, that wasn’t supposed to be there.

The three voices caught my attention again, as two of them tried to shush the third, who was quietly whimpering.

Wait a second, I knew that whimper. Also, didn’t the same voice that was whimpering say something about a Rarity?

Oh no.

Oh no no no no.

Slowly, I turned my head to face the whimpering. I was greeted by the sight of three very frightened, very recognizable fillies. The one in the middle was a white unicorn filly with a two toned purple and pink mane and tail. On her left was an orange pegasus with a purple mane and tail. On the unicorns right was a yellow pony seemingly bereft of horn or wings with a red mane and tail, and a big red bow.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders decided that then was a good time to scream, so I did what any sane man would do in my situation.

I screamed back.

Author's Note

Alright, this is the new first chapter.
For those of you who like the merchant, I'm sorry, but I wanted to do something a bit different, and this allows me to incorporate an element that I want to get in my story. I ask that you at least give this story a chance and not write it off for changing it up a bit.

Otherwise, please feel free to leave comments and suggestions.

Thanks to Setokaiva and TGM for proofreading and idea bouncing.

I just realized that there was a bit in there about metal, that was something I forgot to remove. I apologize, and have removed it.