Author's Note

I've got more coming, so I hope this first chapter will suffice.

Home Sweet Home

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in your hometown. You had recently come back from your trip from the city after a video game tournament you won yesterday. As a reward for winning, you got a check for $5 million as well as purchasing your own trident made of metal.

It was this sort of trident that sparked interest because it was from your favorite game. Also, as far as having a house to live in, you chose to live on your own because you got tired of your parents nagging at you for doing nothing but play video games, mostly because they thought you couldn't make a dime from playing video games, but you proved them wrong.

Nowadays, you had nothing to do, other than to binge after another day of playing some of your games either on your computer or your PS4. You never really had anyone special to go out with, mostly because they didn't meet your standards, other times, they alreadys had boyfriends, were engaged, or they just didn't bother trying to give you a chance, but you didn't care about that.

As of right now, you were at home, watching some of your old childhood movies, thinking back on the lessons you never understood from the movies, but you do now. While you were watching, you started thinking about all the times that you took like for granted. You felt horrible for all the mistakes you made in your life and all the times you made your parents worry about you.

You knew they always nagged at you, but it was just their way of showing that they cared about you and they didn't want to see you get hurt. Feeling a change of heart, you gave your parents a call and explained to them how sorry you were for all the times you acted like a jerk to them. They told you that they understand, because they use to act the same way you do when they were your age.

They then told you that no matter what choices you make, they only want to see you happy. They even admitted their mistakes on shooting down your idea on making a living with video games and decided to support you the whole way and pray for you to keep succeeding. You thanked them and told them that you love them very much before hanging up, feeling much better now.

Just then, you felt a little drowsey and your eyes grew heavy. You turned off the TV and to your bedroom, slamming your head right onto your pillow. You never felt this drowsey before, and before you knew it, you drifted off into a deep sleep.

As soon as you woke up, you heard the sound of a female voice, but it wasn't your mother.

"Hey. Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?" she asked. You lifted yourself up, letting out a yawn. You looked to your left and saw a beautiful anthro horse with a horn and wings. She her hair was purple and pink like her purple eyes and pink fur, but her hair also had a blonde stripe. Judging by the ring on her horn, she was probably already married to someone. You thought you were dreaming, so you didn't panic and talked to her like you would with anyone else in a dream.

"No, not at all, I'm fine, but who are you?" you ask.

"My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Cadence for short. But, what's that thing on the ground." she asked, pointing to to your right. You looked and saw your trident. You grabbed it.

"Oh, this is just my trident. I bought it as a souvenir before I left a convention."

"Are you sure?" Cadence leaned over and gave it a few knocks. "It feels a bit too real to be a souvenir. It's made of metal, instead of wood."

"That's because some souvenirs at the convention I went to had real weapons on sale. Some people buy them because they look cool, others buy them as protection. I only use it in case of an emergency, like say, maybe a robber broke into my home or something."

"Oh. Well, at least you're careful, but if you ask me, you should be careful not to swing it recklessly. The ponies that live here tend to get scared a bit easily. If you want, I'll take you to my castle so you won't have to deal with the ponies judging you."

"Are you sure about that? I don't want to intrude."

"Don't worry, plus, I can introduce you to my family." She extended her hand out to you with a smile on her face, welcoming you to join her. There wasn't a hint of danger in her voice so you grabbed her hand and she picked you up off the ground and guided you to her castle. For some reason, you felt comfortable holding hands with her, but you also felt like you might end up regretting it.

Moments later, she opened the front door and allowed you to go inside. You went inside before Cadence follows you inside after closing the front door behind her. She grabbed your hand again and guided you upstairs and down the hall and took a left and headed straight at the door at the end of the left hall where she tells you to wait until she comes back to get you and she closes the door.

You leaned against the wall and waited patiently, staring at your trident for no reason. You waited for a solid 5 minutes before Cadence came back to get you and brought you into the room where there was a large bed made for two, and at the edge of the bed was a male anthro pony who didn't have any wings like Cadence, but he did have a horn and he was sitting with a smaller pony who resembled a smaller version of Cadence, only her fur was a lighter pink and had blue eyes like the stallion next to her and she had wings and a horn like Cadence and her har was a purple-ish pink with a light blue stripe.

"Aww, who's the little girl?" you ask.

"That's my daughter, Flurry Heart." Cadence says.

"Hi there, my name's Shining Armor." said the stallion. You introduced yourself to Shining and Flurry and shook hands with him afterwards. "So, how'd you end up here in Equestria?"

"Equestria? What's that?" you ask.

"The name of this country. But the kingdom you're in is called the Crystal Empire. Cadence and I rule this kingdom, keeping everypony here under our protection. Of course, we also have to keep a watchful eye on the crystal heart as well, so nothing bad happens" Shining says.

"The crystal heart? What's so important about the crystal heart and why does it need to be guarded?"

"Excuse me?!" Shining felt offended by what you said. But Cadence stopped him.

"Now now, honey. I'll explain." Cadence looked at you with a patient look on her face. "You see, the Crystal Empire recieves complete protection from the snowstorms. The first time this happened was right around the time Flurry Heart was born. Her screaming cries created a sound wave so strong it shattered the crystal heart to pieces and the storm nearly swallowed the kingdom."

"So then, how did you put it back together?" you ask

"We performed this event called "The Crystalling" for Flurry. Which in turn, restored the crystal heart and stabilized Flurry Heart's powerful magic."

"Wow, so how old is little Flurry Heart now?"

"Well, she's 6 years old."

"Aww, that's so cute."

"Thanks, now, what's your story?" Shining asks.

"Well, you see, back where I'm from, I participated in a lot of tournaments. Sometimes they were from my home or I had to travel from place to place. Either way, I won most of the tournaments and lost a few, either because I was unprepared or the others were better than me. But I never gave up or lost hope because I love enjoying being in a part of som friendly competition now and then." you explain.

"Oh, that's nice. Well, is there any place you live around here?" Cadence asks.

You were about to answer to her, but then you realized something: Whenever you were dreaming, you never really felt anything you touched. The things you touch in your dreams always felt empty and your movements in your dream were always out of your control.

But here in the Crystal Empire, everything you felt was real. The hard ground you were asleep on, your movements were completely normal and Cadence's hand felt soft and furry. You finally realized that this wasn't a dream, you had somehow gotten pulled into the Crystal Empire from your own world and you didn't have any way of getting back home whatsoever.

You looked down before speaking in a depressed tone. "Unfortunately, no."

"Why not?" Cadence asked, feeling sympathy towards you.

"Well, you probably already know by now, but I don't live in the Crystal Empire, or Equestria for that matter, I live in this place called Earth."

"I figured at much. You must be a human."

"What? How'd you know what I was?"

"My little sister-in-law's husband is a human. The very first human in Equestria. As for you, how about we allow you to stay with us in the castle?"

"Are you sure, Cadence? I don't know if that sounds like a good idea. I might get in the way."

"It's no trouble at all. You can stay with us as long as you want. We'll even help you get settled in as a permanant resident here at the Crystal Empire. Right, honey?" Cadence turned to Shining.

"Uhh...sure. Why not? Heh." Shining had a bit of hesitation in his voice.

"Come on, daddy. He looks like a nice guy." Flurry says, tugging on her dad's shirt. Shining looked down at Flurry's begging blue eyes. Shining looked down in defeat.

"Oh, alright." Shining got up and walked up to Cadence, whispering something inaudible to you. You could tell that he didn't trust you and you didn't blame him. From your knowledge, not a lot of dads approve of complete strangers being close to their daughters.

After talking things out, Cadence guided you back down the hall and towards one of the guest rooms where there was a bed big enough for to sleep on. There was a night stand on the right hand side of the bed with a little lamp in case there were a few books you wanted to read.

You thanked Cadence before she finally lets you have your privacy. You walked towards your bed and placed your trident near the wall and climbed onto your bed. For no apparent reason, one of your hands was placed in your pockets, only to find out you still had a picture of you and your parents when you celebrated your 20th birthday about a few months ago. This kind of memory was enough to leave tears in your eyes, knowing very well you might never see them again.

Afterwards, you turned around and buried you face in the pillow.

A few hours later, you heard a knock on your door. You told whoever it was they could come in. You looked and the the door open up by Flurry Heart. She flies over to you with her big wings and sits on your bed, looking at you with her adorable little smile.

"Hi, mister. Why are you sad?" Flurry asks, innocently.

You looked at her with a sad smile and said, "I just miss my parents, that's all."

"If you miss them, why don't you just go back home to them?"

"Let's just say they live in a place very far away from here."

"Oh. Is that a picture of you and your mommy and daddy?" she points to the picture.

"Yup. That's them. My mom and dad. They took me to this place called Raging Waters. It's a theme park that has a lot of water slides over there."

"Wow, really? Sounds like lotsa fun!"

"It is, and was."

"Well, thanks for telling me about it. See you later." Flurry Heart then walks out of the room and closes the door on the way out and you waved at her.

"See ya, Flurry." You turned your attention back to the picture and placed it on the night stand and laid back on the bed, reminiscing about your past.

A few hours later, Cadence comes over to your room, letting you know that dinner is ready. You got out of bed and followed her to the dining hall. There, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart were waiting patiently, looking over at Cadence with their happy faces. Cadence pulls out a chair and sits you down and pushes it back towards the table and then finally sits next to her husband.

You took the time to eat your food. Somehow, you felt like someone was giving you the watchful eyes like they still didn't trust you. But you didn't care at the moment because you were still distracted by your hunger and depression at the time. Then by the time you finished, you thanked Cadence and Shining for the meal and waited for one of them to finish eating.

Cadence got out of her chair shortly afterwards and took you back to your room. You still didn't get know your way around the castle, being fairly new to such a big estate. Once inside, Cadence taps you on the shoulders, getting your full attention and whispers in your ear.

"Listen. I know it's difficult for you to have to be so far away from your homeland, but rest assured, I promise to make sure you're welcome here with open arms. And if it makes you happy, I'll even search the library for any spells that can take you back home. Okay?"

"Okay. Thanks, Cadence." you reply.

"Oh, and sorry if my husband was giving you that glare earlier. He's usually really nice. But he can get a bit overprotective of his little girl, just like how he use to be overprotective with his little sister."

"Eh, it's alright. I've gotten use to it."

"Use to it? What do you mean?"

"Back when I was just a teenager, my mom kept recommending me to get a part-time job as a babysitter after I was time off school for the summer. I looked after 14 boys and 37 girls in total."

"How'd you remember that?"

"I counted. To be honest, mom thought it was part of "building character" in case I was going to have children of my own, but obviously the fathers of the kids I babysat didn't really trust me and only hired me once and after that, I was finally free to do my own thing."

"Oh my. Well, I'm pretty sure I can trust you with Flurry Heart. She told me how sad you felt. Anyways, I promise to do all I can to help you get back home. But, if for some reason, you change your mind, I'll be more than happy to welcome you into our society."

"Thanks Cadence."

"You're welcome." Cadence leaned in and gave you a peck on the cheek. You blushed intensely as you were caught off guard by her actions. She giggles and lets you be, walking out of the room and back to her family while you still stood, dead in your tracks.

"What..... just happened?" you got confused, but realized that you were getting lost in thought over a simple kiss and casted your feelings aside. "Get ahold of yourself, man. Cadence may be beautiful, but that doesn't mean she's up for grabs, she's a married woman!"

But no matter how much you tried to deny it, Cadence just kept coming up in your thoughts. You groaned, disappointed and annoyed and just went to bed to clear your head. You covered yourself up under the blankets and forced yourself into a deep sleep.

Later into the night, you dreamt you were on some kind of white, fluffy bed, completely naked. And in front of you was Princess Cadence, also naked. She was walking towards you and crawled onto the bed hovered over you, her eyes half lidded and locked onto yours.

"C-C-Cadence, w-w-what are you doing?" you asked in a bit of a panic.

"There's no need to worry. I'm just here to make you feel more comfortable. Let me ease your pain and anxiety with my love and my body, sweetie." she said, seductively.

"Whoa WHAT?! Cadence, you can't! Shining's your husband! Doesn't he mean anything to you?"

"Sure, but you also mean a lot to me. I could never forgive myself if I left you out on all the fun. I could tell that you have feelings for me."

"H-How can you tell?"

"I have my ways, my love. Now please, let me ease your pain."

Cadence rubbed your cheek with her hand and you felt your whole face burning up with embarrassment. Your brain was sending off all alarms, tell you to push her away, but your heart was telling you to embrace her kindness and her love with no regrets. Cadence leaned down and nuzzled you. You wanted to stop her, but your body wouldn't listen to you and soon you heard her moan.

"So you've finally accepted me, huh?" she asks with the same sultry expression.

"What are you talking about?" you ask. Cadence gestures you to look down. You saw that your hand had gripped her left breast without you knowing and then you let out a gasp. "Oh, crap, I'm so sorry, Cadence, I-I-I didn't mean to, it was an accident, I swear!"

Cadence just giggled and rubbed your cheek. "It's okay. I don't mind. To tell you the truth, I was actually hoping you'd touch me there. Now how about we start off our little funtime with this?" she leans in towards you, closing her eyes and shortening the gap between you and her. You were overcome by the sensation of the strong beating in your heart and leaned towards Cadence, almost about to touch lips, until you felt something rocking your body left and right, with everything fading to black.

"Hey, hey mister! Mister! Wake up, it's breakfast time!" said Flurry Heart. You opened your eyes and saw her in her pink and blue pajamas, smiling at you. You smiled back.

"Thanks for the wake up call, Flurry." you said, patting her on the head.

"You're welcome."

Flurry walked out of the room and you followed her fairly close, but not too close. You two entered the dining and as soon as you got inside, your face got a little flushed when you saw Cadence. She was sitting in the same spot as she did last night during dinner. Shining Armor was eyeballing you, like he was warning you to stop looking at his wife, so you nodded and looked away.

"Come on, now. Breakfast is ready." Cadence says, patting the seat on her right. You nodded and walked over, taking your seat next to her. You kept your eyes locked on your food. You could still feel your face flushed, but you tried to ignore it and began to eat your food. You were unaware of Cadence looking directly at you as she was eating her breakfast. You took your time to eat as always. But then, Cadence spoke again, catching you off guard and almost choked on your food. "Why so nervous?"

As you choked on your food, Shining got out of his chair and got behind you, patting you on the back and helping you catch your breath.

"Don't eat so fast, man. You don't want it to go down the wrong tube." Shining says.

"Thanks, Shining." you reply, looking up at him. Shining only gave him a slight smile before heading back to his seat next to Princess Cadence. After breakfast was done, you were about to head back to your room, but you got stopped by Shining Armor, who had a look of concern.

"Hey, uhh, can we talk in your room? I promise, I'm not mad or anything." Shining asked.

"Y-Yeah, sure." you reply with a hint of hesitation. You and Shining exited the dining room and headed to your room and sat on the edge of the bed. You sat next to him.

"Listen, I know I've been acting like a bit of a jerk lately since yesterday, but I sort of jump ahead to conclusions and get a little over-protective with my wife and daughter."

"I can understand that. Because that's how my mom acted sometimes when I was still a young teenager, starting out in my high school years. She loved me too much to see me go out with a girl she knew nothing about and wanted me to focus on my studies."

"She did what?"

"That's right. But she overreacted because none of the girls in high school were my type. Some of them would have this nasty addiction to this habit called "smoking," others would either try to get together with the most popular athletes, but I preferred staying with one of my closest friends who always liked hanging out at our favorite food joint after school was done for the day."

"So then, where are your parents now?"

"They're back in my home land on Earth. They're doing well with business. Yesterday before I woke up and found myself in the Crystal Empire, I contacted my parents on this little matter that's been plaguing me for a really long time after a trip down nostalgia lane."

"What did you tell them?"

"I wanted to apologize to them for acting like a big jerk. I made a life out of participating in tournaments from home and traveling and they thought it would lead to the poor house, but I ended up proving to them that not everything career involves business, but also fun hobbies. They even admitted to their own guilt as I did with mine because all they wanted was for me to be happy. They told me that no matter what happens, they'll always love and support me for as long as they will live."

Shining felt horrible after what you explained to him. He then placed his hand on your shoulder.

"Y-You know. I think I can relate to you. A few years back, my mom and dad were a bit worried when I told them I was joining the Royal Guard. They didn't like the idea of seeing their own son pursuing a career that could end up costing me my life at an early age. Even my little sister was afraid. Every night, my sister would always cry herself to sleep in my bed, waiting for me to come home."

"Aww, that's sweet. How's she doing now?"

"She's doing good. She actually found herself a husband a few years ago. They even had a child."

"Wow, it's like the family gets bigger and bigger."

"Yeah. Anyways, I just want to say I'm sorry for glaring at you like that. I just noticed how you were staring at Cadence and I just want to ask... do you like her?"

"U-U-Uh..." you closed your eyes tightly and looked away, hiding your blushing face. You waited for Shining to at least smack you upside the head, but all he did was chuckle.

"Hey, relax. You can tell me. I promise not to get mad." you looked to see the reassurance in his eyes when he said those words and you sighed.

"A-Alright. I do."

"So, how did you fall for her?"

"I... When she took me back to my room after dinner last night, she gave me a peck on the cheek. I tried to drown out that crush by forcing myself to sleep, but then I had that... nevermind."

"What? You had a dream about her?"

"I know my boundries. I don't want to make a move on a married woman. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I ended up hurting your family!"

"Hey, hey, calm down. Listen, I get what you're saying, but hey, if it makes you feel any better, maybe I'll try to work something out between the three of us."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Trust me... You'll know when the time is right."

After your little chat with Shining, he walked out of your room and gave you a wink and a thumbs up and finally disappeared from your eye sight. You didn't understand what he had in store, but like any good man, you were going to be as patient about this plan he had.