Prelude: Winning the Trip to Equestria

It was Sunday afternoon and the pony convention I had went to was drawing to a close. This convention was something I had been looking forward to for a very long time. Some people thought I was crazy but I had been saving up for two years to attend it so I could stay in the hotel it was taking place, eat better food than fast food and hopefully get a couple of plushies, plushies that most people would not spend a ton of money on. The ones planned on getting were of Twilight Sparkle since she was by far my favorite pony. After realizing I wasn't hurting for money, I decided that I would get one of her both as a unicorn and as an Alicorn. That is how much I loved her, I wanted to get a plushie of her in both forms.

All seemed to be going according to plan when I arrived but then I learned about a grand prize that was a trip to Equestria, I was shocked. It was something that every single brony I ever knew would want so badly and here was a chance for me to maybe go. I then began to think otherwise because seriously, something like that has to be a scam. I thought that until I wound up meeting with some previous winners who had actually won trips to Equestria. I remember asking them why the hell they'd come back, I asked them why they didn't stay in Equestria.

Well their reasoning was rather ridiculous to me. They told me that it was an anthro version of Equestria and that it wasn't what they hoped for, it wasn't exactly like it was in the show. Me, that actually made me want to go even more. The fact that the ponies walked upright and had other human features caused me to start thinking about thoughts most people would ostracize me over, dreams of having something special with her.

I then learned another thing, I learned that there were a couple of winners who actually chose to stay in Equestria. What they did there after staying I wasn't sure but I did hope for one thing, I hoped that they didn't win Twilight's heart and hook up with her because a chance to win her heart was my dream come true! Now it was just a matter of buying enough raffle tickets to win the trip. Once I discovered that this was legit, I could win a trip to the one place I have fantasized about for so long and hopefully meet and maybe even hook up with the mare that had been my waifu since the very first episode, I scrapped all plans of buying plushies. I instead spend a great amount of money on raffle tickets, only leaving myself enough money for food and lodging, which were things that I would obviously need.

I met a fair amount of people at the convention, some of who had the same desires involving Twilight that I did. We ultimately couldn't stand to be around one another because we began to argue over who would get to go and who would wind up winning Twilight's heart and maybe share an eternity with her. Other people however, they thought people like me were nuts, wanting to get with Twilight like that. One guy really pissed me off though, he brought up Flash Sentry and I naturally put him in his place and brought up how they have never even interacted. Face it, that only happened in Equestria Girls so in all reality, she had never even met him.

Finally Sunday afternoon arrived and the convention was winding down. Some people had already left but those of us who had bought raffle tickets, well us along with the vendors, were staying until the very end. Some people only had one raffle ticket while some of us had well in excess of fifty. Me, I bought a hundred so discovering if one of my tickets was the winner would probably take a while.

At the very end they brought out a mirror and activated it. The head of the convention came out, activated it and began, "We'd all like to thank you for coming this year but we are sad to announce that with Friendship is Magic being over, this will be the final convention." He paused for a moment before adding, "Now I see that some of you have purchased a lot of tickets so we will give you time to go through them after we announce the winning number."

The room went dead silent when he pulled a ticket out of a basket and announced, "And the winning number is 7890513."

We all began to go through our tickets and as I continued to go through them, I seriously began to think that I had spent a massive amount of money on raffle tickets only to not win but when I hit my 100th and final ticket, the number on it read "7890513."

I dropped all my other tickets, held it up and immediately began to jump, scream and yell, "Yes, I did it, I did it, I won! I'm going to Equestria!"

Some people around me embraced me and congratulated me but another guy, not too far away from me, threw all his tickets down and stormed out of the hall as I excitedly headed up to the stage, ready to begin a new phase in my life, hopefully one with Twilight.

Once I got up to the stage the guy running it said, "Congratulations! You are the final one who will being going to Equestria and with that being the case, whether you like it there or not, you will not be able to come home."

I exclaimed, "That doesn't matter to me, I get to go and meet Twilight and her friends and hopefully win her heart!"

The guy laughed because apparently no one else had ever openly admitted they wanted to win Twilight's heart. He led me to the mirror and said, "Well hopefully you'll win Twilight's heart and just so you know, this is an anthro version of Equestria you're going to so it might happen."

I pumped my fist towards the ceiling, "Sweet, I bet she is going to be so beautiful and maybe even want me forever!"

The guy rolled his eyes before saying, "Well good luck on winning over Twilight!"

I gave the remaining crowd, which by this time was very small, one last smile and gave one final fist pump before heading into the mirror. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect upon arrival but I did hope that I would come out in Twilight's chambers with her there, ready to greet me and welcome me to Equestria and if I were lucky, we could get to know one another and take things from there.