"So that's why you don't want to go back? You want to change what's going to happen?" Twilight asked.

"Yep. That's pretty much it. And the fact that I got my wish granted is also a factor. My life was boooooring, Twilight. Even if my life here's gonna be the same, at the very least, in this point in time, I can be the only fan of the show to witness all of your shenanigans first-hand... hoof... limb... you know what I mean."

Earlier that day, she had been doing some research regarding the mirror portal. Initially, Twilight wanted to ask Sunset if she wanted to join, but stopped when she realized that the girl was probably in class at the time. So, she decided to tinker with the portal herself, only occasionally going out of the room to get more parchment, books, or miscellaneous resources.

The main reason she started this project at all was because she hoped to be able to create her own portal to alternate Sombra's world. Twilight recently had the idea of purifying him just like how they did with their own Sombra during the Umbrum takeover. She wanted to turn this into a surprise for Celestia, since if the project was a success, the solar princess will be able to get the chance to save her lover.

That very concept was exactly why she was so determined to figure out how the portal to Canterlot High worked. Currently, it was the only portal available that she could use as a point of reference.

Before she started to tamper with the portal, she informed Sunset that it'd be closed for a while. After doing so, she began by writing down various observations that she had discovered when she upgraded the portal. Eventually, Twilight started to slowly but surely take apart the machinery and started to fiddle with the portal's connection with it and her communication journal.

As she was trying to channel magic through a mechanism that routed the journal's interdimensional connection with its counterpart to the portal, Twilight might have gotten a little too excited and channeled just a tad too much magic into it, causing a massive crack in reality to form right in the middle of the room.

After a few tense moments, the rift eventually spat out something. Something that Twilight could only describe a unicorn-lion-dragon hybrid with a really weird horn. The creature was about as tall as herself when it finally stood up, it's coat was brick red in color, and its curly mane that also surrounded its neck was a dark shade of grey. The scales on its back and face were a darker shade from its fur, and its oddly-shaped horn was quite a ways bigger than most unicorns. It also wore a pair of goggles around its neck, as well as a pair of saddlebags.

When the creature–kirin, as he had referred to himself–finally became aware of his surroundings, he yelped in shock. Understandable, Twilight thought, getting sucked through a portal into an unknown location and being met with a stranger who was staring directly at you would scare the life out of her as well.

It took some time for the weird-looking pony to calm down enough to properly talk. Twilight had to ask Spike to make some tea for their unexpected guest to calm his nerves.

After an awkward greeting, a barrage of apologies, and a scream of joy from the kirin, they began to talk about his situation.

The kirin introduced himself as Crucible Spark, though Twilight swore he was about to say something else before saying his name. Apparently, he was a human who was just making his way to his workplace when he fell into the rift that was caused by Twilight's tampering. Twilight was about to make a comment about the human world when Crucible Spark added that he's not from the world she was thinking about.

This caught Twilight's attention, the way his statement was worded implied that he might know something about the mirror. When she asked what he meant, he told her to, in his words, 'Get Sunset Shimmer to explain what a cartoon show is so you can get the context and then I can elaborate further.'

The fact that he was aware of Sunset's connection to her was another cause for alarm. Twilight took a moment to assess the situation, but eventually her curiosity got the better of her, so she did as Crucible Spark told her to.

After a bit of back and forth with Sunset through the journal and learning what animated TV shows are, she went up to the kirin again for his explanation.

What happened next would utterly shatter her view of reality. Or at least it would have, if Crucible had explained it with more flair and treated it seriously. Still, realizing that your entire world is considered fictional in another baffled her. The fact that Crucible Spark even had merchandise of her and her friends, along with accessories in the shape of their cutie marks in his saddlebags only strengthened his claim. He pulled out something that Twilight recognized as a smartphone, something used by Sunset and her friends beyond the mirror to communicate, and played a video that showed a third-pony view of one of her adventures. Specifically, it was a video of the Elements of Harmony saving the Crystal Empire.

Crucible Spark continued to show her more videos, all of which were events that had happened. Like her freakout when she forgot to send Celestia a friendship report, her friends causing a mess at the Grand galloping gala some weeks later, Discord's release and defeat, Luna's first nightmare night,Twilight's ascension into an alicorn, Sunset turning herself into a demon, Twilight's fight with Tirek, and so on. He even showed comic book pages that featured even more stories, such as Rarity getting possessed by the Nightmare Forces, King Aspen being captured by Well-To-Do for Fun Fun Land, their adventure in the other mirror dimension, Sombra's reformation and reunion with Radiant Hope, and even a set of comics that featured the backstories of various villains Twilight and her friends had faced.

Twilight continued to discuss with Spark–he wanted to be called as such for simplicity's sake–about that very existential dread-inducing topic. She quickly learned that he doesn't want to go back, mostly because he'd rather live the rest of his life as a magical creature and because he was curious if his presence could alter future events in some way.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, "Well... alright then. If that's what you want."

"Yeah. Great. Now, do you know where I can look for a job? Gonna need bits to afford a place to stay. If some of the fanfics I've read were right, I should be able to do some blacksmithing." Spark continued.

"Oh! You don't need to worry about that. Since you don't have a place to stay and the fact that it was my fault you're here in the first place, you can stay here at the castle for as long as you want." Twilight assured.

Spark shrugged halfheartedly, "Baiklah." he mumbled before heaving himself off of the floor from a cross-legged position that he somehow did.

Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously, "Sorry, what did you just say?"

"Hm? Oh, just murmuring to myself in my native language. Wonder why I have an accent? That's because the language I'm speaking is my second language." he explained, "Anyway, thanks for the room, I'm just gonna ask Spike for directions."

Crucible Spark then proceeded to exit the portal room and went on his way to find the number one assistant, which left Twilight by herself, with thoughts circling in her head. Her mind was filled with a maelstrom of questions.

"I should probably take a break..."

After a couple minutes of being guided by Spike, Spark finally entered one of the crystalline guest rooms of the castle. He let out a whistle as he looked around. It was infinitely better than his dinky apartment back in Jakarta.

'Mewah banget...' he thought to himself.

Spark truly couldn't believe it. He was actually there, in Equestria, in the flesh. Not as himself, sure, but he really didn't want to know if the events about Jason Wright were a real possibility or not. Better to be a pony-adjacent creature that's not an unreformed changeling than anything else.

He slowly removed his saddlebags as best he could with his hooves. At least with them being cloven, he can pinch the straps that held the flaps closed on his backpack-turned-saddlebags. Spark wondered how ponies in the show could occasionally pick up items with their flat hooves

Spark then dragged out a novel from one of them. He smiled when he saw the cover undamaged and unaltered, The Infinite and The Divine was his favourite novel, and he was glad his copy wasn't ponified or altered by the rift he fell through.

Eventually, he dragged the book farther from the saddlebag it came from. Spark then took a couple steps back himself and lowered his wavy, branched horn towards its direction.

He wanted to test how his magic worked. Considering how he turned into his own Original Character, he hoped that he acquired some of the same abilities that he had given to Crucible Spark.

Crucible Spark, the character, was supposed to be a kirin metalsmith who lived in a grimdark steampunk version of Equestria. He made every tool and armament used by the main characters and factions of the story he was supposed to be in. He was a member of a family of kirin who were able to fully control their nirik forms without succumbing to rage, which made them masters of the forge and allowed them to use their flames to imbue their work with powerful magic. Spark wanted to know if this knowledge could be accessed by himself.

Spark closed his eyes and focused, he tried to dig through his head for any information regarding magic, blacksmithing, or any attribute that his OC had. It seemed like he was successful, as in mere moments, he felt a sudden rush of... something within his mind. He felt a sudden sense of relief, just like the feeling that one gets when they remembered something just in the nick of time before going out. Almost as if something in his brain just clicked together.

Immediately, the book started to float in his yellow aura. His smile widened when he maneuvered the book around with ease. Spark chuckled in excitement as he zipped the book around here and there, like a child playing with a toy plane.

Feeling giddy, he quickly set the book back in the saddlebag. Spark sat down on the floor and tried to dig deeper into his memories, each one flashed vividly and filled his mind with every piece of knowledge that the 'true' Crucible Spark had.

Spark needed to confirm the accuracy of his knowledge, so he thought to go and find a couple of books on blacksmithing and its related topics. He eagerly stepped out into the hallway, happily whistling a tune all the while.

Twilight still didn't know what to make of her guest. Personally, if she was trapped in an alternate world, away from her friends and family, she'd do everything she could to return to her home. Not... whatever Crucible Spark was doing right now.

She decided to talk to him later. For now, Twilight wanted to get a nice book to read for her well earned break. As she approached the doors to the main library, she could hear the sounds of a distinctly accented voice excitedly mutter something. Twilight quickly entered the room, and was met with the sight of the human-turned-kirin floating various books beside him while he read another book titled 'Applying Metallurgy to Blacksmithing by Iron Pick'.

Spark turned his gaze from the book to the princess, "Oh, hey! Just trying to jog my memory a bit. I'll clean up later."

Twilight just shook her head in disbelief. Despite previously being a human, a species she knew lacked natural magic, he seemed to have adapted to using his horn pretty well. While she knew that levitation was the simplest spell that every unhandicapped unicorn could learn, she doubted that somepony–or somebody, in his case–could learn how to levitate so many things at the speed that Crucible Spark did. Even foals would struggle for some time before being able to properly levitate a couple lightweight objects. Twilight theorized that it may be due to the specific species of equine creature that he turned into, but that would require some testing, and she didn't think Spark would appreciate being a guinea pig very much.

Twilight gave him a smile, "Hello Spark, looks like you've gotten used to using magic."

The only indication that told her he listened was a slight nod. Twilight found that reaction to be scarily similar to her past self, before she moved to Ponyville. She continued her task of finding a good book and eventually pulled out a book about the history of Starswirl's spells, which she had already read dozens of times before. Twilight then took a seat in the opposite area from where Spark was seated.

The princess and the alien spent the next hour or so reading in silence, one learning everything he possibly could about the world he was transported to, while the other reread a favourite book to relax. Throughout it all, Twilight couldn't help but notice Spark muttering to himself in his native language. She had never heard of anything like it before, and she was curious about the version of humanity he originated from. Considering that the denizens beyond the mirror spoke the same language as they did in Equestria, the thought of an entirely new society to learn about was simply irresistible.

Barely containing her curiosity, Twilight turned to her guest, who just finished returning the books he took out, "Um, Spark, could you tell me more about the world you came from?" she paused before quickly adding, "If you don't mind, of course!"

Twilight could hear the sound of his unexpectedly lengthy sigh from where he stood, which was quite impressive considering he was at the opposite end of the fairly large room. She felt somewhat disheartened, but understood that Spark was probably not in the mood to talk about such a vast topic.

To her surprise, however, Crucible Spark turned around from the bookshelves and moved over to where she was.

"Alright, princess. You better make yourself comfortable, 'cause we're going to learn about a country called 'Indonesia'!"

Author's Note

A simpler story than Three Outcasts or The Interlopers. Just a simple Human in Equestria story to pass the time while I wait for the commissioned cover image for TO to be finished. I'm hoping to release the next chapter along with it.

Maybe I'll put out another chapter of TI before that, though.

Anyway, here's the Pony Town version of Crucible Spark as a point of reference. I tried my best with what I was given.

I might try to draw him to get the spific details in the future.

If you want to share ideas on how this story should go, consider commenting!

Corrections and criticisms are more than welcome, I can't improve without those now, can I?
Have a good existence!
:)

"Remembered forever, the land of Equestria"