As kid, you never had a regular childhood like some of the other kids. Mostly because you always saw your parents fighting because of your dad's drinking problem. He had always been like this since you were just an innocent little 3 year old who wanted a happy life. You got your wish, but right after your mom had divorced your dad and took full custody of you since he was too dangerously drunk.

Although you did miss your dad as a child, you started warming up around other kids at school and made plenty of new friends who later stuck by your side until high school graduation. Around that time, you couln't remember your dad's name or what he looks like. You never even knew if he was still alive or not, but whenever there were kids playing in the parks with their dads, tears would flow down your cheeks.

But it wasn't until later on that your mom gave you the good news and bad news about your dad. The good news was that she knew where he was. The bad news was that his body was found by the police, whom they discovered floating down the river in a body bag. One day, your mom took you to see your dead father. The look of his dead corpse broke your heart and you buried your head in your mother's shoulder. The people who found his body also found a note written in permenant marker for you.

You read the note your father left you:

To my beloved son

Although I don't know how long it's been since you and your mom left, if you're reading this, you can already guess that I've passed away. But I want you to know that no matter what happens to be, you've always made me proud knowing that you'll always succeed. Although, I am deeply sorry for the pain I've caused you and your mother all those years ago, nothing I do now will change anything. Live your life to the fullest and never forget who you are, not for me, but for yourself. I love you so much, my son.

Signed dad

To this day, you kept the note as a momento of your father in a picture frame. Right now, you're looking online for any kind of job that might help make ends meat. You mom was always working so hard, putting in overtime hours, mostly to keep the bills paid.

You applied to some jobs around your area and waited for them to reply. While you were waiting, you opened up another tab on the internet to watch a few YouTube videos. After about 15 minutes, you got a notification on your email account from an unknown sender. You clicked the notification and the entire world around you turned grey and somehow stopped time altogether.

Next thing you knew, a portal opened up on your computer screen. In a last ditch effort, you took your dad's letter from the picture frame and placed the letter in your pocket before the portal pulled you inside and closing off the way back home. You were going so fast that your vision was getting blurry and you finally accepted your fate, whatever it was, and closed your eyes, losing conciousness.

Later on, as you began to regain conciousness, you heard the sound of a female voice, calling out to you, but she didn't sound like your mom. You weren't sure who she was, but she certainly didn't sound like any girl you've met in your previous high school days. Your body felt like it was being shaken a little bit by what felt like their hand.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you hurt?" asked the female voice.

You began to stir and opened your eyes to see the sky above. You sat up and saw what looked like an anthro unicorn with light yellow fur, turqoise eyes, and a red and yellow hair color. She was wearing a purple sleeveless shirt with a picture of a red and yellow sun atop her chest and wore an orange skirt that covered her down to her knees, but she had hooves instead of human feet.

"W-W-What's going on here?" you ask.

"I found you lying unconcious under the gazebo so I thought I'd check up on you."

"Gazebo? That can't be right. I remember losing conciousness in my room, but I don't remember going outside at all and I certainly down own or live near any gazebos."

"So, it's safe to assume you're not from around here, huh?" she asks. You shook your head. "I see, then you must've come from another world or something."

"Yeah, that's right. So who are you and where am I?"

"My name is Sunset Shimmer and you're in the land of Equestria. More specifically, you're in Ponyville. And before you say anything, the reason I'm not scared of you is because I've lived around a lot of humans before. But I can't exactly say the same for you, though."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Nothing, I'm just saying that since you're new around here, I figured I could give you a place to stay. Some ponies around here are kinda scared of humans. Come on, follow me." Sunset stood up and offered you her hand, which you accepted and stood up with her. She takes you over to the town where everyone was staring at you with either fear or just gave you friendly waves.

You waved back at them so as not to be rude. Sunset soon guides you to this two-story house and lets you inside before closing the door behind her. Her living room had what looked like a coffee tabe in the middle with a couple of recliners and a bookshelf. On top of the bookshelf was a couple of pictures of what looked liked her and her friends both as anthros horses and humans.

"Hey, Sunset. Who are these girls?" you ask. Sunset walked over to the bookshelf and gave you a smile.

"Those would happen to be my best friends, and their names are Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. The picture of me as a human was taken a couple of years ago after I graduated high school and the other one was taken a month ago."

"Aww, that's nice."

"Yeah. When I came back from the human world, Twilight told me how she met the love of her life and that she finally became a mother and a wife. Same thing happened with her friends. The craziest part was that her and her friends' husbands' are humans just like you."

"Seriously?"

"Yup, it's all true."

"Aww, that's sweet."

"So, how about I make you some food? I've had a lot of practice back at Canterlot High School."

"Sure, but what are you gonna make?"

"Hmm... how about I make you a hamburger?"

"A burger? But aren't horses vegeterians? They can't eat meat, nor can they eat tomatos."

"First off, we're ponies, not horses. Second, I only have meat in my kitchen because I bought it from the human world a week before my "Welcome Back Party" Pinkie Pie threw me. However, because of our currency being different from the human world, I had to go hunting for gems over at this cave. It only took about a few jewels for me to make enough money to pay for the food."

"Wow, that's pretty smart of you."

"Gee, thanks." Sunset turns away a bit, blushing. "So, how about I fix up something for you?"

"S-Sure, thanks."

Sunset walked into the kitchen and opened up the fridge, taking out some of the food from the fridge and some food from the bread box and the cupboards. You walked over to the other recliner and sat there, waiting patiently for the food to finish getting cooked. All in all, you couldn't stop thinking about how cute Sunset Shimmer was when she blushed after you complimented her.

But you thought that she might already be taken so you kept it to yourself. You leaned back on the recliner and tried make yourself more comfortable. At that moment, you got curious of how you ended up in this country called "Equestria" and why you were brought here. You remember just strolling through the internet, applying for jobs so you could help your mom make ends meat.

However, when that notification popped up, opening it up made you black out and now you live in this brand new world with this anthro pony and she's absolutely gorgeous. But you still didn't pursue her because she might already be taken. The only thing that was on your mind was whether or not your mom has already noticed you were gone and thought she was probably looking for you.

You placed your hand on your head, not sure how to take this cold hard truth in. But you then got the idea that maybe it's all a dream and you needed to wake up. You gave yourself a pinch on your arm and grunted, meaning you were not in a dreaming, you were wide awake.

The smell of food hit your nose and you wondered what Sunset was cooking.

"So, what's the story with you? What's your family like?" Sunset calls out from the kitchen.

"All I had left of my family was my mom. She's strong, independant, kind and she cared a lot about me. But I couldn't say the same for my dad." you reply.

"Oh? What was your dad like?"

"Not exactly the best dad ever. He always spent most of his time drinking. I always thought he was just a lazy old drunk, but my mom told me he wasn't always like that. She told me that he only acted like that because of he lost his job after getting into a fight with his "asshole of a boss."

"I can understand why. When I was still living in the human world, I've had to deal an "asshole of a boss" myself when I had my own part-time job. But you know, I did get something good out of it."

"Like what?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a few good pranks like putting thumb tacks on his seat and watching him shout and cuss over the mic and watching all the customers just stare with their jaws hanging open."

"Damn, you're brutal. Remind me not to get on your bad side."

"Not to worry, that was only when I was... well..."

"What is it?" you got off the recliner and walked into the kitchen. Sunset stared down at the food she was cooking on the stove with a sad look in her eyes. "Sunset, what's the matter?"

"It's just that I've had a rough time in the human world because of personal reasons beyond that. You see, I wanted to become a princess when I was once Princess Celestia's former student. But when she denied me, I grew jealous and angry and left her to start a new life in a human world. I was happy at first, but I grew out of control when I started picking on other students just to be respected."

"You know, I've seen that happen once before. This one guy at my high school always kept picking on this kid who was in an art class because of how "art was for sissies." When I confronted him, he told be to back off and I didn't heed his warning. I kept on confronting him until he broke out of his shell and told me he just wanted to have a very special talent like all the other people."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We all makes choices that either us and others for the better, or worse. In which case, my dad's choices are what might have caused his death."

"You lost your father?"

"Yeah. I don't know how he died, but the police found his body. All I have left of him is this." you reached into your pocket and pulled out the letter your dad wrote you and showed it to Sunset. She levitates the letter over to her with her magic and reads it. Afterwards, she places her hand over her chest before looking back at you with an even more concerned look.

"To think that there is someone else who experienced losing a loved one like I did."

"What? You mean, you lost someone important to you?"

"Not just one." Sunset reached under her shirt and pulled out a necklace with a silver heart attached to it and she opened it, revealing what looked like her as a baby and her parents. "As you can tell, the two ponies carrying that little foal are my mom and dad."

"B...But how?" you ask.

"I don't know. But I miss them so much. I never even got to know what they were like!" the tears in her eyes started to overflow, so she levitated her food on the coffee table. You put your food down, too and got off your recliner chair and went to Sunset. You placed your hand on her shoulder. She looks at you with a questioned look, which was answered with a surprise hug.

"Sunset."

"Y-Yes?" she asks. You waited a good few seconds until finally...

"You're the very first friend who's ever understood me. Let me be your friend, too."

She gasps and buries her head into your shoulder, sobbing quietly. You could feel your shoulder getting wet, but you didn't mind one bit. Because, all that mattered right now was being there to comfort Sunset and try to ease her pain a little bit. To your own disbelief, there was no one you knew who could actually relate to you, but Sunset was a different story. You felt grateful about it.

You had thought about it for a few minutes in order see where it might go until you finally made your decision and then whispered into Sunset's ear, "Listen, Sunset. I think I want to stay here in Ponyville and maybe try to start a new life here. So do you think you can help me with that? Maybe you can introduce me to your friends whenever we all got the time."

Sunset pulls away from the hug gently and wipes off whatever tears were flowing out of her eyes and nods with a smile and says, "Sure thing. And thanks for the hug."

"No problem."

When all is said and done, Sunset levitated her plate of food onto her lap. You grabbed your plate from the coffee table and sat back down, eating. Just then, from that one bite, you thought, 'Whoa, she's a really good cook, I'm definitely going to stay here'

Author's Note

My apologies if this chapter is rushed. I'll try to make it longer in the next chapter, but thank you all and brony on