Your life is boring. You work long hours to bring home a mediocre paycheck to an empty apartment, not even a pet to greet you when you get home. As you lay in your bed staring at the ceiling, you feel your phone buzz, checking it informs you of a payment of a bill, bringing your balance to $8.32, with two days until payday, with an empty fridge. At least work gives you a free meal...
An hour passes as your insomnia wracks your mind, when the antique mirror you got from your grandma when she passed away starts to glow, ringing out a constant hum. As you pull yourself out of bed, tugging a pair of sweatpants on and a shirt, you investigate the glowing mirror, and when you look through it, you see... A purple... Unicorn... Pegasus horse? It... No, she seems excited as you pass in front of the mirror. As you reach to touch it, your fingers pass through it, and you're pulled through by some force. As you're pulled into the room, a wave of fatigue washes over you, and you collapse onto the floor as the purple pony rushes over to you.
You awaken to a bright morning, groaning softly as you look around the unfamiliar room, yawning as you sit up, inspecting the room. To your right is the purple pony from earlier, snoozing away with her mane styled like a person's hair, and now that you think about it, she looks shockingly similar to that show your little sister watches. You reach over and gently touch her shoulder, and she jolts awake, gasping softly as she says "You're awake! You've been asleep for almost a week!"
You blink as you realize you've been asleep for such a long time, stretching as you look to her and ask "Where... Am I? Is this place real or am I just dreaming?"
She sighs softly and her horn starts to glow, and she hands you a bottle of water and some crackers, your stomach growling and alerting you to your hunger, which you indulge in and dig in, tasting the full flavor of the, admittedly bland, crackers and water, though you feel the texture and taste the salt, making it obvious you're awake
"You're in my castle, I'm the princess of friendship Twilight Sparkle, You might have heard of me, I've come to know that there's a show in your world that depicts our world, I believe it's popular with young fillies... No, I believe the word is girls in your world, anyways, That's what I've been lead to believe" She says, followed by you nodding along with her
"Yeah, my name is... Ugh... My head... Why can't I remember my name? I remember everything else about my world, why can't I remember my name?" You say, rubbing your head as it's wracked with a headache worse than you've ever had as you try to remember your name... No, any names from your life. As soon as you stop trying to think about it, the headache fades and you munch on the crackers some more, sighing softly as Twilight hums softly before saying "How about I call you Anon since you don't know your name? I've got internet connected to your world and I've seen people called that" She says, walking out of the room and asking you to follow her.
You make your way downstairs to the basement of the giant treehouse she calls a castle, where a gigantic piece of machinery sits in a state of disrepair, scorch marks, melted wiring, broken bulbs, and worst of all, the mirror you came through shattered into pieces. she looks up at you with sad eyes as you shrug softly and say "Ah well, it's not like there's anything that I was really attached to back there. I haven't seen any of my family in years, so they won't bat an eye if I'm missing for a while"
She sighs softly and pokes at scattered shrapnel, before saying "Well... I suppose I'm glad you aren't missing anything on the other side, 'cause it'll take a while to fix everything, not including the mirror, that... that's gonna be hard to replace"
You take a seat and look at a shard in your hand, turning it over before wrapping it in a piece of cloth and slipping it into your pocket, Twilight walking over as she uses a broom and sweeps up, taking a seat next to you and saying "I'm sure you're still hungry, here, take some money and go get yourself some food, we can talk about what we can do about you being here when you get back" before handing you a small bag of jingling gold coins, looking over her destroyed lab as you start to make your way out, gently rubbing her back before heading out, a soft whinny coming from her as you do so, smiling softly as you make your way back upstairs, where you find a small purple dragon sorting a nearby bookshelf.
The dragon turns to you and asks "Oh, you're awake, how are you feeling?" as he turns to you, setting the book he had in his hands down, walking over and looking up at you,
You shrug softly and say "I feel fine... A bit odd, but I can't really place my finger on it, but I'm fine otherwise
The young drake nods softly, before asking "Would you like a map of the town? There's a few restaurants around here I think a human would enjoy, I assume you don't eat hay and flowers, do you?"
You nod softly and say "Yeah, sure, I'll take a map, The princess gave me some money to go get some food, some normal food would be nice, I assume it's all vegetarian, isn't it?"
He nods and hands you a map after circling a couple places, and handing it to you, various places circled, along with the castle made quite prominent on the map.
You head outside after thanking the dragon, looking out across the rural town, and you begin to follow the map, wandering around town as various ponies whisper and stare, winding up at a bakery called Sugarcube corner, a bright pink mare bouncing over the counter as she jumps on her four hooves, jumping up to eye height as she excitedly shouts
"HI HI HI! You're the human that came through the mirror aren't you?! It's so exciting you're awake now! You can answer all the questions I have for you! What's your name? I'm Pinkie Pie! Where are you from? I was born on a rock farm! What's your favorite flavor of cake? I like all of them equally!"
You chuckle softly as she bounce on her hooves, putting your hands on her shoulders as an attempt to calm her down, walking over to a chair to answer her questions, saying "I'm having a hard time remembering my name, but you can just call me Anon for now, I guess. And for where I'm from, I'm from earth, I suppose it doesn't really matter where I'm from there, it's gonna be a long time before I can even go back, and for third, I think I'll have to say a lemon cake, with cream cheese frosting"
She grins wide and makes a sort of dog toy/rubber chicken 'Squee' sound, bouncing on her hooves again as she rushes into the kitchen, causing you to chuckle softly, and a few minutes later, she comes out saying "Alrighty! Your cake is in the oven! Want anything else to snack on while you wait"
You hum for a moment and ask if there's anything savory she can give you, setting the bag of money on the table. She pulls out a few bits and runs behind the counter, bringing over a few round baked buns, steaming on a plate. You pick one up and bite into it, a delicious, slightly sweet, savory bean filling in the one on the plate, relishing in the delicious flavor, chewing and swallowing the food, thanking the cute pony for the food, rubbing her head with a hand, walking back into the kitchen afterward, giggling softly as she does so.
After you finish the buns, the other two being potato and the last being cabbage, all quite good and well seasoned. After you finish, she brings out a cake tote, along with a slice of cake on a plate. You offer to pay for it and she shakes her head "You're new to town! I give everyone new to town a cake!"
You smile and give her another pat, eating the delicious cake and picking up the tote, thanking her before going back to the castle, walking inside as you see Twilight walk upstairs, shouting excitedly as she says "Oh! You're back! I see Pinkie found you"
You chuckle softly and inform her that you in fact found her, accidentally, though you had gone to the corner and had lunch there, and gotten a cake from her
She gestures to the kitchen and says "Go ahead and put it in the kitchen, and we can talk about the situation you're in in there"
You head inside the kitchen and set the cake on the counter, taking a seat as Twilight does the same, sighing softly as she says "Well, Good news and bad news, the mirror can be fixed, the parts are relatively easy to get, but the bad news is I can't find a piece of the mirror, and we need the full mirror to fix it. I'm afraid it got tossed over to your side somehow"
You set your hand on the piece of glass in your pocket, and debate your options. You could keep it for now and use this as an extended break from work or... Go back to your world and get back on the grindstone... Yeah, First option sounds better for now, so you don't bring it up
She looks across the table and says "There is another way, but it'll take a long time to be able to do it, maybe even a few months" before reaching across and putting her hooves on your hands and continuing "While we try and fix it, you can live here, the room you woke up in has been empty since the castle was made, and it was a storage room until you got here, but it seems perfect for you while you live here"
You thank her and smile at her, holding her hooves softly before asking if there's anything interesting happening around town
She nods and says "Oh yes! There's a meteor shower happening tonight and I planned on watching it on my balcony upstairs, I could show you if you'd like!"
You say you'd enjoy that, and smile at her again, standing up and asking if there was anything else, to which she replies 'no', and you head out, but not before taking another small slice of cake, the baked good perfectly moist
A few hours pass, and you make your way to the balcony with a blanket, taking a seat as the chilly air raises goosebumps on the skin. Twilight is already up there watching for the first star, which drops a few minutes after you get up there, a beautiful display of lights across the sky.
Twilight shivers softly nearby and you stand up, offering the blanket, warmed by your body heat, to the pony, causing her to at first reject it, but when you insist, she offers you to share it, her covering the both of you with the blanket, though you have to sit right up against her, her warmth radiating against you...
End of chapter one
