Getting Firewall back to Equestria

Note: This is a shameless self-insert into CardLafter/Lafteroth’s story, ‘Through the Eyes of Another Pony’ If you haven’t read it then do so right this moment, don’t even think about reading on. No! You thought about it! I know you did, don’t deny it! Begone! Unless you have read the story, in which case, have fun. This is my first fanfic style thing and it takes place after unrevised edition chapter 14. I probably got several things wrong and it sucks but whatever. This is more for my own personal benefit than anything else. Also, yes I know Lafter plans on the whole of the mane 6 to come after Firewall but there is no way I could handle writing about all six of them, I can barely write about one of them. By the way, you can find ‘Through the eyes of Another Pony’ here:  http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/08/story-through-eyes-of-another-pony.html 

I catch the bus home from my university to the apartment I live in. I won’t divulge the details to you but I think you can make do knowing that it is in Alabama. Yes, that’s right, where CardsLafter lives, not that I knew at the time. I had recently finished reading all 14 of the ‘Through the Eyes of Another Pony’ chapters in a row, taking about 17 hours from start to finish with no breaks. Needless to say I was tired, especially after the stupidly long and boring lecture I had just sat through. This is why I originally thought my mind was playing tricks on me when she appeared.

As a Brony I always sort of thought Equestria to be real and all those ponies and everything, even though I was doing a physics course and I knew Equestria and all connected items to be impossible. However, due to something in my brain, I am able to be both realistic and down to earth but also be a dreamer with his head in the clouds and his mind in Equestria. So when this event on the bus occurred I both believed it to be true and impossible at the same time. Disconcerting to say the least.

Back to the event at hand, I was riding the bus home from Uni and was about 4 stops from mine when a strange, yet familiar, purple glow started to the right of me. I’m not sure about buses wherever you live but the bus I was riding had a line of 5 seats at the back, three of which were being taken up by me, not due to a large girth but because I was half-lying-half-sitting on the seats. My head was turned and was staring out the window so it took me awhile to realize the glow was not something I was seeing outside but a reflection of what was taking place on the bus right beside me. I turned just as the glow intensified and had to close my eyes against the glare. I’m not sure how long it glowed for but it must have been at least a good half-minute, or so it seemed. When the glow started to die down there was a faint ‘pop’ and the glow dissipated completely. Blinking a few times to get the after-image out of my head I glanced towards the front of the bus, I was the only one on the bus, excluding the bus driver that is, who was engrossed in the traffic-lights we had stopped at.

Turning my head back towards the glow I say the aforementioned ‘she’ that had appeared. While this is my second time mentioning her it was my first time seeing her though she seemed strikingly familiar but I couldn’t place my finger on it. She had purple hair with a pink stripe in it. She also had a horn. It looked real and I couldn’t see a strap attaching it to her head but my realistic side knew it to be a fake. This I could deal with, she was probably a cosplayer dressing up as, yes! That was it; she looked like Twilight Sparkle, main character in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. However there was something I couldn’t deal with, she was naked. And I don’t mean she was skimpily dressed, she was stark naked. As a socially awkward science student I didn’t see much of the opposite sex, especially not naked ones. This broke the skeptical part of my brain so that the only thing it could churn out was that this was a dream, cliché I know.

She seemed just as shocked to be on this bus as I was to see her naked and was looking around wildly whilst mouthing to herself words I couldn’t hear. A quick glance over at the bus driver confirmed that he was still staring out of the front of the bus and had not noticed anything untoward on his bus. She eventually turned to face me, who was still in my relaxed pose though my expression was anything but. She seemed to be trying to say something to me and after a few tries where she was too quiet to hear she manages to squeak out ‘hi’ or something along those lines. I’m pretty sure it was a greeting. Able to speak rather better than her at this time I replied the first thing that came into my head:

‘Twilight Sparkle?’ Smart one.

To my surprise her eyes widened even further, were it possible, and her jaw dropped.

‘How do you know my name?’ She replied, having regained her voice.

‘What?’ My expression changed from surprised to confused.

‘My name is Twilight Sparkle, how did you know it?’ Her expression also changed, but to suspicion.

‘You mean... you’re Twilight Sparkle?’ my brain seemed to have shut down entirely and I was running on pure ‘WTF is going on’.

‘Yes.’ She replied, now looking as confused as me, ‘I thought you knew because you said my name...’

I shut down the realistic side of my brain, with it still churning out the same message ‘It’s a dream.’ Now was not a time for skepticism, it was the dreamers time to shine.

Sitting up properly I lifted my sports bag from the floor.

‘Here, you may want to put these on before people started staring, don’t worry, they’re clean, it was too wet to play today.’ I offered her the bag.

‘What are you talking about? Why would people sta...’ She looked down and stopped talking for a while.

‘Oh sweet Celestia, I am a human...’ she whispered quietly. Then she blushed as though she had just remembered something, maybe the fact that she was naked.

She grabbed the bag from me quickly and after taking a few moments to stare at her hand and to get used to having fingers she undid the zip and started putting on my sports kit.

‘It might be a bit big for you. Sorry.’ I said the only thing I could think of.

‘No it’s fine, it’s these stupid hands.’ She replied, obviously struggling to put the clothes on with her newfound hands.

‘Here, let me help.’ I offered, helping her pull on the rugby shirt over her chest. No this was not anything sexual, nor was I embarrassed at all. I didn't think of her as naked woman anymore, she was a pony in my now completely non-skeptical mind. She had proved herself to be a pony to me after I saw her expression at seeing she was human, or she could always be insane of course.

She grunted her thanks and switched her attention to her/my shorts, as I looked at them being pulled up I noticed her cutie-mark for the first time, it looked just like Twilight’s from the show, albeit on human flesh. As she busied herself with the clothing my mind wandered to think about why she was naked, maybe clothes didn't translate across worlds very well, I’m sure Rarity would be distraught; this sparked the question which I probably should have asked myself first, what is Twilight Sparkle doing here? Is she on a mission for Celestia? Is she trapped here? Can she still do magic here? All of these questions raced through my mind but none were voiced as Twilight turned to me and began to speak.

‘I forgot that humans liked to wear clothes all the time, despite their interest in nude females.’ She said with a completely straight face. I myself struggled to hold my grin back until a question from the skeptical part of my brain (stupid thing won’t stay down.) pushed its way to my mouth and into the world,

‘How do you know that?’I asked.

‘From Firewall of course,’ She clapped a hand over her mouth and then continued ‘but you don’t know Firewall do you? Celestia told me that there were so many humans it would be almost impossible to find someone who knew him, let alone find him.’

My brain shut down completely for the second time that day, but somehow, through pure instinct I’m guessing, I managed to say ‘Oh, I know Firewall alright.’ And blacked out. Luckily, instead of landing on my face like Firewall in the first chapter when he meets Rainbow Dash, I landed back on the bus seats. Unfortunately this meant that Twilight was left alone in an alien world with only an unconscious human for company.

My brain thought whilst I was KO’d. Surprisingly, it had actually crossed my mind before that ‘Through the Eyes of Another Pony’ was real. What if Lafter wasn’t writing the story as a story but as a recounting of his tale? And the reason he hadn’t written chapter 15 was because it hadn’t happened yet? This may seem crazy to you but compared to other things in my mind it seemed quite plausible. And now it seems to have been confirmed. (Mythbusters reference ftw!)

I woke at the bus-stop near my apartment with a concerned face looking over me.

‘Woah, I feel dizzy.’ This was not my first time waking up after being unconscious; I had once tried to be a boxer, with mixed results. However, this was the first time with me waking up without a splitting headache; I guess that’s a plus. Judging from the light, or lack thereof I guessed I must have been out for at least two hours.

‘Are you OK?’ The concerned face asked me. After a few seconds to reassert myself with the world I remembered who the face was and all of the other crazy stuff that had occurred just before my untimely passing out.

‘Yeah, I’m fine Twilight, how did we get here though?’

She then explained how after I had passed out the bus driver finally noticed the strange goings on at the back of the bus and pulled into the nearest stop, which just so happened to be this one. The bus driver had asked whether I was OK, and with Twilight’s quick wit she managed to come up with the story that I was tired after a long day and it was best not to wake me. She also said that if he could help carry me off the bus, though she called it ‘the vehicle’, she could get a friend to get us. The driver obliged and now here I was.

‘Twilight, you are indeed a genius.’ Her grin was so adorable! Obviously not a scratch on a pony squee but it was still a force to be reckoned with. I found myself grinning back despite myself.

‘We should probably make our way back to my apartment.’ I said as I got up, brushing myself off. I could see the questions in her eyes but it seems she had too many to know which to ask and so contented herself with a nod. As we walked back to my apartment Twilight’s eyes wandered around, taking in everything around us as we walked. She remained silent, even though I could tell that questions were bursting to be released. Eventually though, one question managed to find its way out of her mouth,

‘Why is everything so grey?’ I blinked and looked around myself, everything did seem really grey now that I compared it to the vibrancy of colours that made up Equestria.

‘I’m not sure, I guess humans can’t handle that much pink.’ I replied after a while.

‘Also, everything smells like one of Firewall’s cigga-thingies.’ She added.

‘You mean a cigarette? Yeah that smell is from all of the vehicles.’ I replied.

‘I don’t like it.’ She announced.

I had no answer to that so we continued to walk in silence until we reached my apartment block,

‘Wow, now it smells like urine.’ She said disgustedly.

I replied with a nod and unlocked the door to the apartment tower. I could see her wrinkling her nose whilst we made our way to the apartment.

‘Don’t worry, it smells better inside my apartment.’ I reassured her. She gave a slight nod. I don’t think she was paying much attention though as the elevator door had just opened wide, as well as her eyes.

‘This is your apartment?’ She asked incredulously. I gave a chuckle and answered,

‘No, this is the elevator, it ‘elevates’ us to my apartment, as it were.’ She seemed suspicious of the elevator and refused to step inside until I got in myself. On the way up I could hear her breathing heavily, was she claustrophobic? I gave her a nudge,

‘It’s not much further.’ I said as I gave her a smile, she smiled back, which was reassuring.

As we stepped inside I asked her if she was hungry, she replied with a noncommittal shrug.

‘I’ll take that as a yes.’ I said as I got to work cooking dinner. And by cooking dinner I mean microwaving some Ramen. I made sure I used my vegetarian packet so Twilight wouldn’t eat anything containing meat. Twilight seemed more interested in the microwave than anything else though.

‘Is that another...phone? I think that was what it was called.’ She asked, pointing at the microwave. I gave a laugh/sigh and set about explaining how humans use thousands of different electronic devices for a range of uses. She sat on the sofa, wide-eyed through it all, occasionally asking me a question. Once I finished she sat silent. After about two minutes her brain seemed to have sifted through all of the details and memorised it as she asked me,

‘Can I have one? Just to study?’ I had to shake my head, it would be too dangerous, especially after what happened to Luna, I explained to her. Oh sweet Celestia, Twilight can use the puppy dog eyes to their fullest indeed.

‘Please?’ She begged, ‘I need, ok, want to understand.’ She added.

Sighing I got up and got the small dynamo torch I always kept by my bedside in case of a power cut.

‘Here.’ I said, giving her the torch, I could always get another.

‘You wind the handle every so often and that charges the batteries inside and so when you press the button it lights up and when you press it again it turns off.’ I explained to her. She took it from me almost reverently.

‘Oh wow! Thank you... umm... I don’t know your name...’ She apologised.

‘Oh yeah...’ I replied, ‘You can call me Dan for now I guess.’

‘Ok! Thanks Dan!’ She replied, smiling her adorkable smile. I chuckled and replied,

‘Ok, but now you have to answer my questions.’ I replied, she yawned, interrupting me, ‘I guess it can wait until tomorrow though.’ I added with a grin.

‘I’ll go get you some pyjamas then.’ I said and walked to my room to see what sort of androgynous pyjamas I could find.

‘What are pyjamas?’ Twilight asked

‘Sleeping clothes, humans change clothes between day and night and between days.’ I explained.

‘Weird...’ She replied. I was just about to mention how walking around naked was weird when the microwave *ding* stopped me. I poured the Ramen into two bowls and handed one to Twilight saying,

‘Careful, it’s hot.’ I then turned away to get some chopsticks to eat the Ramen with. When I turned back I saw that she had tried to eat the Ramen with her newfound fingers, only managing to burn herself in the process. Laughing I handed her some chopsticks and explained how you use them.

‘This looks like the Lo Mein Firewall made; only less angry.’ She said before digging into the noodles.

Once we had finished I let out involuntary satisfied sigh and leaned back on my chair,

‘That hit the spot.’ I said, smiling. Twilight soon finished too and repeated my sigh and the backwards lean.

‘Yeah, it did, by the way do humans only eat noodles?’ She asked.

‘Nah, this is all I can afford though,’ I replied with a small chuckle, ‘ now it’s my turn for my question, does Luna look like she did when she apologised to Celestia after you defeated Nightmare Moon?’ I replied.

‘Yes, why?’ She answered with a confused look, ‘You watch the show too then?’

‘Yeah.’ I replied, not really thinking about her question, more about how in this version of Equestria, Season 2 never happened. Then my dreamer part of my brain kicked in saying how the first season songs were my favourite anyway, apart from the season 2 finale songs, I then went on a tangent in my mind, reviewing every song from the second season. I had just finished with the Flim-Flam brothers song when the down-to-earth part of my brain metaphorically slapped me round the face saying how Twilight just asked me a question and here I was, looking into space. Pulling myself back to the real world I asked,

‘I’m sorry I was spacing out, can you repeat that?’

‘Umm, Ok, I asked where I should sleep.’ She answered.

‘Oh, you can sleep in my bed, I’ll sleep out here on the sofa, you can find the pyjamas on the bed.’ I said, ‘Goodnight, I guess.’

‘Goodnight.’ she replied, yawning. She walked over to my room and closed the door behind her. Lying back on the sofa I thought about the events of the day. ‘This is crazy,’ I whispered to myself, ‘Unfortunately, I like crazy.’ I added with a smile. If talking to yourself is the first sign of madness then replying to yourself must be the second, or it could mean you’re just a lonely, lonely man.

After only a few minutes I could hear Twilight snoring softly in my room, however it took me much longer to fall asleep, eventually slipping into dream around 1-2am. The last thought that entered my conscious mind was that I was still wearing my day clothes, whoops. Dreams flashed through my mind in quick succession, never lingering on one dream for more than it took to take in what was happening. They switched between images of Nightmare Moon, Equestria, Firewall and several other pony related things before falling silent. Upon waking I found myself sprawled on the floor, I must have fallen off the sofa during the night, getting up I saw that Twilight was already up and in the bathroom, washing her face. Today was the day we go find Firewall, I thought to myself. Walking up to Twilight I asked,

‘How come you’re not using your magic to do stuff here?’

She replied with a sigh and the words,

‘I tried but something is blocking all of the magic here, like the Inmanipulon from Firewall’s crash site.’ She then gasped, ‘Oh no! We should get back to Equestria soon or it’ll stop me from being magic!

‘Oh crap...’ I replied, eloquent I know.

‘We should get a move on then!’ I added this more sensible response, ‘Let me just get changed out of these clothes.’ Twilight looked distraught and gave me only a slight nod in reply. Now that I think about it I couldn’t imagine Twilight without her magic either. I busied myself in getting changed into a plain black T-shirt, grey combats, black jacket and my white Sony wireless headphones which I connected to my mp3 player. Today I think I should listen to my dubstep/classical playlist, weird combination I know but remember that my mind is very bipolar so I have to combine both sides to get a normal thought across. Same with my music. It may also have something to do with the fact that my two favourite ponies are Vinyl Scratch and Octavia but yeah. Putting my mp3 player into my side pocket I walked back to Twilight, just so you know the reason for my choice of clothes is not due to it being my fashion or anything, they were just the first clothes I could find. I came back to find that Twilight had changed back into the sports kit I gave her yesterday,

‘You sure you wanna wear that?’ I asked her,

‘Yeah, it’ll do. If all goes well I won’t have to wear it long. Before we leave can I ask some questions though?’ She replied.

‘Ok, but then I get to ask you some questions.’ I answered. We agreed and sat down on the sofa facing each other. I told her she could go first and the questioning began.

‘Ok, so first of all, do you know the story up to this point?’ Her first question was an easy one to answer,

‘I think so, the last thing that happened that I know of is that Firewall got changed into a human by David and then teleported back to Earth, I’m not sure what happened after that.’

‘I see... well after that Princess Luna and Princess Celestia burst into the prison thing and started to question him but he disappeared without a trace. So Celestia asked me to come to earth to recover Firewall as she sensed that he was going to more important to Equestria’s future than just Luna’s coltfriend. The spell was in this special wing in the Canterlot archives that I had never seen before, it required both princesses to open it at once to disable the locking spell on the door. She hoped I would find another ‘Brony’ because Luna said that there was thousands, if not millions of them around so I should be able to find one, especially with my horn and all.’ She said all of this rapidly, eager to get on with her questioning.

‘I see... well that answers my question I guess.’ I replied.

‘Alright then. First question, what relationship do you have with Firewall?’ she asked.

‘Ah. Well I guess I’m a fan more than anything else.’ I answered,

‘So you don’t know him personally?’ She asked, sadness creeping into her voice,

‘No, sadly, but I can find out quite easily I think.’ I said, trying to reassure her with some success.

‘How do you plan on doing that?’ She asked.

‘I’ll use my laptop, it’s like Firewall’s phone only larger.’ I explained whilst pulling my laptop out from underneath the table, after a few moments of clicking around I said,

‘Crap, the internet must be down in the apartment block, we’ll have to go to the Public Library down the road.’ I said it more to myself than her. The laptop was displaying the yellow triangle and exclamation mark over the number of bars I had. On the plus side Twilight perked up at the mention of going to the library. I turned to her, noticing the change in emotion and said,

‘You remember when Firewall first appeared at your library and talked to Spike about the types of libraries from his land?’

‘Yes, vaguely.’ She replied,

‘Well, we’re going to a public library which I hope has a spare computer where we can find out where Firewall is. Oh yeah, a computer is a larger version of a laptop.’

‘Wow your technology is amazing,’ she breathed, in an amazed tone,  ‘let’s go!’

The walk to the library was short and uneventful, apart from someone snickering over Twilight’s horn but I don't think she realised. We walked into the library and asked if there were any free computers, we were pointed in the direction of the Teenager section,

‘There should be one free in there.’ The library worker told us. As we walked towards the teenager section Twilight whispered to me saying,

‘Everything is so organised in here, how do they arrange their books, alphabetically?’

‘No, they use the Dewey-decimal system.’ I replied

‘The what?’ She inquired.

‘Well it’s... umm... it is... err...’ I said, looking around for the answer,

‘Ah ha!’ I exclaimed, reaching for one of the pamphlets on the wall,

‘Here you go Twi! This should explain everything.’ I gave her the pamphlet before blushing, I never called anyone a nickname, even my best friend was still ‘Robert’ to me. Twilight didn’t notice though, she already had her head in the pamphlet and was reading happily. I left her to it and sat down at the free computer, typing in my card number and pin. The first thing I decided to check for his whereabouts was on his Equestria Daily account, hopefully he would have put up his name or something. I then realised that Equestria Daily don’t have an account system, drat. I then switched to FiMFiction, they should have accounts there. Dang it, no info on him, just a link to his DA page, checking that I found that this is where I should have began all along. Not only did I find out his name (Steven Matthews) but he lived in Alabama! Success!

Searching around some other sites I found his actual address in a directory, I won’t disclose it so shush. I called Twilight over and showed the house to her on Google maps,

‘Here it is, it’s only a couple of miles away, we can catch the bus there.’ I told her excitedly. This was all very thrilling to me, the most adventurous thing I had ever done previously was go bungee jumping, and I loved it but nothing ever seems to come up that allows me to do other things like that. So you can see why I am very excited at the moment, I felt like a detective, tracking down my suspect. Twilight however, she seemed to be right at home in the adventure, I guess she did have them every other day though. I was jealous to say the least. Back to the present, Twilight nodded at the map and said,

‘Nice one! How long should it take?’

‘Not that long, about half an hour maybe’ Google maps had already plotted my route and what bus to catch but I never trusted the time it gives me, they were usually wrong.

We set off out the door after I logged off and walked to the bus stop just down the road from the Library.

‘Okay, so we’re looking out for a bus with the number *number withheld* bus.’ I said, note that I didn't actually said number withheld, that was me, the writer, not giving you the number.

‘You mean like that one?’ Twilight replied, pointing at the bus that was coming our way.

‘Well that was fast.’ I replied, taking out my wallet. We got on the bus and I paid for our tickets, I wanted to sit at the back where I normally sit but there was a group of teenagers at the back, laughing loudly and playing their songs out loud. We sat down near the front with me by the aisle.

‘Hey Twi, I’m gonna put my headphones on Ok? I don’t like the music the guys at the back are playing, I’ll take them off when we get there though.’ I said, putting my headphones on. She nodded at started staring out the window. ‘I just called her Twi again...’ I thought ‘She doesn’t seem to mind though, I guess I should just call her that then.’ I decided.

About halfway to our destination Twilight nudged me, I took my headphones off from my ears and put them around my neck,

‘Yeah?’ I asked

‘Sorry to bother you but I wanted to ask you what that is.’ She pointed out of the window at the line of pylons that dotted the landscape in the distance.

Oh those, they carry electricity across the land, powering almost all of the technology we own, my mp3 player though,’ I said pulling it out of my pocket, ‘runs on batteries which carry electricity inside them, Firewall’s phone also uses batteries.’ I continued, using the only example I thought she would understand.

‘Oh ok.’ she replied. I was just about the put my headphones back on when a crumpled up bus ticket came flying and hit Twilight in the back of the head. Twilight span round in her seat instantly,

‘Nice horn, nerd!’ one of them called out and they all burst out laughing. Twilight turned back around and sat back, sighing.

‘I used to get laughed at in Canterlot for constantly walking around with my head in a book instead of playing with the other fillies but this is the first time I’ve been laughed at for my horn, what’s wrong with it?’ she said, quiet enough so that only I would hear.

‘Nothing, it’s just that in this world people dress up as cartoon characters, usually Japanese ones and get to together for conventions, it’s called ‘cosplaying’ most people consider it to be for nerds.’ I replied, trying my best to not get angry at the teens, I wouldn’t show any negative emotions in front of Twilight decreed my dreamer side, ‘But you’ll get angry or sad at one point, there’s no point in bottling it up.’ the down to earth side of my brain offered in rebuttal. ‘Shut up, I do what I want’ the dreamer side replied.

‘Stupid brain..’ I muttered,

‘What was that?’ Twilight asked, once again staring out the window,

‘Oh nothing, hey look the next stop should be ours.’ I told her.

‘Cool.’ She replied.

Thankfully the rest of our bus journey was not affected by the teens at the back, now that we were ignoring them they left us alone. ‘Sigh, why was it that everyone laughed at me no matter what my age.’ my dreamer side asked rhetorically. ‘Shut up, no one has laughed at you since your trunks fell down in Seventh Grade, they were laughing at Twilight just now, idiot.’ The skeptic rebutted in disgust. ‘You shut up! I was trying to be sad! Also it was a rhetorical question.’ came the reply. ‘What happened to showing no negative emotions in front of Twilight?’ asked the skeptic. ‘I wasn’t showing it, it was in-’ I cut of the reply, my brain was obviously wack at the moment so I decided to ignore it, not sure how but I did it, Ok?

Whilst this argument went on in my brain we had already gotten off the bus and Twilight had started walking in the direction of Firewall’s house.  She seemed to have memorised the exact route from only a quick glance at the screen. She had some serious brain-power going on up there, makes my brain feel stupider than it already is.

Twilight seemed to be concentrating on our direction so instead of interrupting her I turned up the volume on my mp3 player which, at the moment, was playing Beethoven’s ‘Violin Sonata No. 3’ from his ‘Opus 12: Three Violin Sonatas’ having just finished playing Bass Cannon by Flux Pavilion. I corralled the two halves of my brain together, who were apparently still having the same argument.

‘Hey brain, STFU and listen!’ I told the two halves,

‘What is it brain?’ They replied in unison,

‘What should we say to Firewall when we meet him?’ I asked my brain,

‘Why not say ‘Hey Firewall, I’m here with Twilight to bring you back to Equestria.’.’ The dreamer side said. The skeptic side was about to reply before pausing a moment and eventually saying,

‘I was about to mention how that is a stupid idea but I have nothing better so yeah, let’s go with that.’

‘I’m glad you finally agree on something.’ I said to my brain.

‘No problem, brain.’ They replied together.

‘Now shut up again.’ I said, before cutting off their indignant replies. Yes, I just had a conversation with my brain, that’s how I make decisions, now be quiet, there’s a good boy.

Having completed my decision making process I turned my conscious mind back to the real world, not that I could really tell what was real anymore. Anyway, in the most-real-at-the-moment world we were just pulling into Firewall’s road, wow that 10 minute walk went by fast,  I guess my brain is slower at thinking than I previously thought.

‘This is the road we need.’ Twilight mentioned, she was doing an extraordinary job of adapting to this world but I could see everything from the dog poo around to the fact she had to walk on two legs was making her uncomfortable. The faster we get her out of this world the better, ponies were not meant to be on Earth, it was too grimdark. The skeptical side of my brain perked up, noticing a chance to poke at my ideals,  

‘So what makes you think that humans should go to Equestria?’ it asked in an incredulous tone which majorly annoyed me. ‘What makes you think your mom should go outside?’ the dreamer retorted before I could stop it. I clamped down on them both before this became a flame war in my head, ‘Be quiet both of you, admittedly I do hate those ‘Human in Equestria’ fics,  there are too many of them but this time it is different.’ I declared to them both, ‘What makes it different this time, brain?’ They both asked together. ‘Because this time I’m in it.’ I replied with a grin before shoving them both to the back of my brain. Normally I would ignore my brain a lot more than this but recently I can’t stop from replying and messing it up even more. I think it’s a sign I’m losing it, oh well, if losing it involves going to Equestria then buck it, I’m gonna roll with it. I smiled at the thought of being as crazy at Pinkie Pie, running around like a little school girl at a Justin Bieber concert. ‘Why would Twilight take you with her back to Equestria?’ an unwanted voice said  quietly from the back of my mind. ‘I thought I put you away.’ I replied, not wanting to think about the question, I knew that if Twilight wouldn’t take me with her then I would have to go back to my normal boring life, which I’m pretty sure would make me insane, knowing that I could have gone to Equestria and you don’t want to see me when I go insane, it has happened before and I think the doctor is still recovering. Anyway, enough about my previous life, now it’s time for the present, and at present we were just walking up to Firewall’s house,

‘Well, this is it, Twi.’ I said before rapping a quick knock on the door and stepping back. ‘I feel like I’m trick-or-treating.’ I said with a grin,

‘What was that?’ Twilight asked,

‘Oh nothing, just talking to myself.’ I replied, I could hear the sound of a TV or something playing some sort of muffled sound before I heard footsteps coming closer towards the door. I’m not sure what I expected him to look like, a pony maybe? However he was sadly lacking in the equine look, he looked distinctly human actually. He was dressed in a deep blue dressing-gown and slippers, he had a cigarette sticking out of the left side of his mouth (his left) and a slight grin playing on his lips. I was just about to speak the script my brain had provided for me but he beat me to the punch,

‘Bit early for trick-or-treating isn’t it?’ The grin widened a fraction as his attention switched to Twilight’s rather obvious horn. Dammit, what do I say now? ‘I don’t know, you’re on your own.’ My brain replied, Mentally sighing I decided to just go with the words I was supplied with earlier,

‘Hey Firewall, I’m here with Twilight to bring you back to Equestria.’ He looked shocked and his grin quickly disappeared. He flicked away some excess ash and took a brief puff before replying,

‘Are you referring to my story? How did you find out where I live?’ He asked.

‘This isn’t to do with your story, well... I guess it is, but that’s not the point! I am actually here to bring you back to Equestria with Twilight.’ I replied, pointing at Twilight to emphasize my point.

‘Firewall?’ Twilight asked,

‘Is this some kind of joke? Because I forgot to laugh. I admit, that horn does look a lot like a real horn and your Twilight voice is pretty spot on but what you’re talking about, it’s crazy. Human’s can’t go to Equestria, my story is just that, a story.’ He said in a quiet voice, he seemed to be struggling to control his emotions.

‘So, you’re not Firewall?’ Twilight asked, sadness creeping into her voice.

‘I’m not saying anything, this conversation is over.’ Steven said, making to close the door.

‘Wait!’ I shouted, sticking my foot in the doorway, I was not about to let Twilight down anytime soon.

‘We can prove that we really are here to bring you back.’ I said to the gap between the door and the frame. It slowly opened and he looked me up and down.

‘I really want to believe you but I can’t go around just believing anyone that says they are the real deal, so I’m going to give you one chance, and one chance only to convince me.’ He replied slowly at first, but picking up speed as he went on.

‘Ok, deal,’ I replied, ‘Twi, you need to tell him something that only you and he know, something that wasn’t mentioned in his story.’ I added to Twilight.

‘But I don’t know what he’s written in his story though!’ She replied nervously.

‘It’s ok, I know you can do it.’ I replied, placing my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Firewall watched this exchange in silence, surveying us both and thinking things over in his mind.

‘Ok, hang on, let me think of something.’ Twilight said, obviously wracking her brain for something to say, something that was only known to the two of them,

‘Did you talk about when we first met?’ She asked, he nodded and she went back to thinking,

‘How about all of those questions I asked you at that time?’ she asked, he once again nodded and she went back to thinking. I mentally sighed and thought to the other parts of my brain ‘We’re gonna be a here a while...’ And we were, well to me anyway, I think it was about 5 minutes of Twilight asked whether he had covered something in his writings and him nodding in reply.

‘Did you say how whilst you were making Lo Mein I was searching my library for anything on humans? I’m not sure if you noticed but I had to canter back to my seat after I heard you coming through from the kitchen.’ She asked the next question, he was halfway through his nod before he stopped.

‘Wait, I didn’t write that, how did you know that?’ He asked, emotion creeping into his voice,

‘Because I’m Twilight Sparkle.’ She stated bluntly looking straight into his eyes, daring him to challenge her existence. He fell silent for the longest time, eventually opening the door all of the way and saying,

‘Come in, we need to exchange stories. And walked back into his house. We followed silently, each thinking different thoughts, I could tell Steven was thinking about Equestria, probably about Luna, Twilight was thinking of... something, I couldn’t really tell. I myself was thinking of Steven, from my very limited knowledge of him, he seemed different from his normally semi-crazy, outgoing, impulsive self  he was in the stories. Something must have messed him up when he was David I realised, something that has changed him, perhaps permanently.  The faster we got him back to the ponies the better, I decided.

He sat us down on the sofa and then plonked himself onto the armchair facing it. Both me and Twilight sat uncomfortably, not because the sofa wasn’t comfortable  but because neither of us were familiar with sitting next to someone from the opposite gender. If Steven noticed the uncomfortableness between us he didn’t show it and went straight on to talking,

‘Oh God, I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you earlier Twilight and .... I don’t know who you are...’ He stopped and stared pointedly at me, obviously telling me to tell him my name.

‘You can call me Dan.’ I answered his unspoken question, you may have noticed that while I never call anyone an abbreviation of their name or a nickname etc. (except Twilight I guess.) I let people call me Dan, that is because I am Dan, that’s what it says on my Birth Certificate, not Daniel or anything else that could shorten down to Dan, just Dan.

‘Ok, sorry then Dan. It’s just that after I was teleported back to Earth, I was teleported back to the time where I would have normally woken up from that drunken stupor I was in at the beginning of the story. I tried to convince myself that it was all some long, vivid dream that my drunken brain conjured up to please me in my unconscious state. I only just recently managed to convince myself that it wasn’t real, that I hadn’t been to Equestria,’ He then added in a quieter voice, ‘that I hadn’t been in ....’ the last bit coming out as a sigh. ‘Anyway though,’ he said, the grin he had when we first met was back and bigger than ever, ‘Let’s get on with this and get off this planet as quick as possible.’ Me and Twi nodded in unison, both of us eager to Equestria too. However, first Steven had to find out who exactly I am.

‘Before we get going, who are you Dan?’ He asked.

‘Ah, I was wondering if you were going to ask that,’ I replied, ‘I’m just a regular human, well... sort of regular, I was on the bus and Twi just sort of *popped* out of the air beside me, after finding out she was indeed Twilight Sparkle I sort of passed out and so I was carried off the bus by the driver and her but before she did she mentioned Firewall and I said I knew who that was. So then we searched around and I found out where you live and so here we are.’ I said, neglecting the part where Twilight was naked.

‘I see...’ Steven said after a pause, then he uttered the question I really hoped wouldn’t come up:

‘Are we taking him with us?’ he said, turning to Twilight. She thought for a long while, I was unconsciously holding my breath and let it out it one big rush, drawing both of their pairs of eyes to me,

‘Sorry, carry on.’ I apologised. Eventually, Twilight seemed to have gone over all of the possibilities and answered,

‘I think we should,’ I let out a sigh of relief, before she elaborated, ‘I would hate to leave him here after all he’s done, only to find that he had some other role to play in all of this, I mean what are the chances of appearing next to someone who not only would accept me but also know Firewall? It seems too coincidental to me, also if we bring him with us Celestia can make her own judgement on the matter, and if she deems him to be a threat or something we can send him back.’ So I wasn’t off the hook just yet, it was now Celestia who must judge me. This thought sent chills up my spine.

‘Ok then,’ Steven said, he seemed to agree with Twilight’s reasoning which was reassuring, ‘Now that that is over, let’s get down to the matter at hand, I don’t suppose you can use magic or you would have used that to persuade me you were real, so how do you suppose we teleport back?’ He was one smart cookie, I thought, and voiced my thoughts as such,

‘You’re one smart cookie.’ I said, he gave a slight chuckle before turning back to Twilight, obviously eager to get this done. I sighed mentally, no-one appreciated my thoughts...

‘Luckily, me and Celestia prepared for this, however, seeing as nopony has ever gone to Earth before it was mostly guesswork. She planted a spell on my cutie mark, with my help, that relies on the magic from Equestria as opposed to my own personal magic. This means that it should hopefully hold up against the anti-magic effect this world has. I just press my cutie mark and it teleports any sentient being within a 5 metre radius around me to Equestria.’ She seemed proud of the idea,

‘Nice, let’s hope it works.’ I added and Steven nodded. Twilight pulled her/my sport short down a tad, just enough that her purple star of her cutie mark was about half-way out. She gave it a prod, we all held our breath as, at first, nothing happened, but then suddenly a light gold aura permeated from the cutie mark, both me and Steven jumped closer in order to make sure we weren’t left behind. The aura enveloped all three of us, it felt like nothing I have ever felt before, if I had to describe it, it most likened to swimming in an ocean filled with glitter that was heated to a nice warm temperature and you could breath in it. Ok, that wasn’t the best description in the entire world but I wasn’t really focused on describing the sensation at that moment in time. My brain was sort of more along the lines of ‘Weeee!’, from both sides oddly enough.

And then it was over, I felt the magic recede and  there we were, Twilight was instantly recognisable, looking exactly as she did in the show, and there was Firewall, even though I had only seen hand-drawn pictures he was so obviously the Firewall in my mind. Then there was me, I obviously couldn’t see me but seeing as how I was a little taller than Twilight and slightly shorter than Firewall was a good sign. I looked down hesitantly whilst the others took in their surroundings, welcoming themselves back to the land. Once my eyes were lowered I instantly shouted out ‘BUCK YEAH’ because there they were, two hooves staring (metaphorically of course) right back at me. They were Blizzard Blue (Yes, that’s a colour, Google it.) and I’m guessing that’s what the rest of me was coloured too. Firewall looked over to me in understanding, knowing the intense emotions one feels at a time like this very well. I smiled back and turned to Twilight,

‘Twilight, give it to me straight... what type of pony am I?’ I asked her, whilst in my mind I thought how there were an insane number of fanfics where people were alicorns, that’s crap, I only allow three alicorns; Celestia, Luna and Cadence.

‘Umm... a pegasus.’ She replied after looking at me up and down. I broke out into a massive grin, I loved pegasi,

‘And what colour is my mane?’ I added in a quiet voice, trying to guess what the colour was without looking is harder than one might think .

‘Sort of white, with a hint of blue though, it’s lighter than your body.’ She replied.

‘Nice!’ I said truthfully, white is a fun colour to be, no offense intended. I was about to try and fly before the skeptical side of my brain (haven’t heard from him in a while, guess he feels out of his depth.) told me how that was a stupid idea and I, myself, was stupid. It hurts to get insulted by your own brain, it hurts deep. I decided, however, to follow its advice and stay put on the ground, for now at least. After all, I didn’t want to be all banged up for my audience with the princess. Oh crap, I had forgotten about that, thanks for reminding me brain. NOT! I was now pretty much crapping myself at the moment, ‘Celestia’s going to kill meeee!’ I whined in my head. I was just about to respond when I heard hoovesteps coming from down the corridor we were in, and at that point I finally noticed where we were. The magic that had brought us here had plopped us down in a bright white corridor which was obviously part of Canterlot castle. While the bright lights and even brighter colours, my eyes felt like they were being burnt out by a child’s drawing during the summer solstice but my mind cared not for the wellbeing of my eyes, it had switched back to ‘Weeee!’ so I had to try and tune it out while the hoovesteps got closer and closer. A quick glance to the other two confirmed that I wasn’t just hearing things, they were focussed on the end of the corridor too where the hooves in question were just rounding the corner.

All three of us held our breath as the pony behind the hooves came into view, he, for it was a he, was wearing the royal clothes of a royal pony, not of a royal guard but of actually royalty. However, the thing I noticed first was his eyes, they were milky white, like someone had forgotten to put his irises and pupils in when animating him. Except they didn’t look out of place on him. He had several scars that poked out from behind his clothes, I wracked my brain, trying to figure out who he was, he seemed familiar, not like someone from the show but still familiar. Firewall on the other hand obviously immediately realised who the pony was and glomped him, for those who don’t know it involves running (or in this case galloping) towards someone and flying tackle-hugging them, usually resulting in both of you landing painfully on the floor in a pile of affection. But this guy, who I now remember is Storm Wing due to Firewall shouting out his name prior to the glomp, barely staggered under the force of Firewall landing on him, and Firewall isn’t that small of a pony. Storm Wing must have some serious muscle going on behind those clothes. Or I guess I should call him ‘Prince’ Storm Wing.

‘Wha... Unhand me this minute! You id... Firewall?’ Storm Wing spluttered.

‘Nice to see you too ‘Prince’ Storm Wing’ Firewall replied with a smile, emphasizing the ‘Prince’ part. Suddenly, Storm Wing himself let out a massive smile and looked, as much as a blind pony can look, around the corridor,

‘And Twilight Sparkle too! Nice to have you both back, but there is someone else... someone I don’t recognise, who are you stranger?’ Storm Wing said, his voice getting colder as he turned his head towards me. I opened my mouth to speak but Twilight got there before me,

‘He’s a friend Prince Storm Wing, don’t worry.’ I brightened up at Twilight calling me a friend, dispelling some of the fear I felt for what was coming up.

‘I see, I presume you wish to seek an audience with the Princesses?’ Storm Wing said after a pause where he seemed to be sizing me up.

‘Yes, I think that would be best.’ Twilight replied. Without any further speech, Storm Wing turned and started walking back the way he came.

 As we trotted along the corridor I pondered how Firewall seemed to be mostly back to normal now that we were in Equestria, just so you know, that was the skeptic side thinking that, the dreamer side was still broken in the joy of this new world. I slowed down until I was next to Twilight,

‘Thanks for talking for me back there Twi,’ I whispered, ‘Storm Wing reminds me of a teacher I once had, he scares me the same way, the sort of calm power they have that you know they wouldn’t hesitate to use on you.’

‘It’s Ok, also, I didn’t mention your name just in case you’re like Firewall and wanted a pony name or something that matched your cutie mark.’ She replied. I stopped in my tracks, head whipping around to try and get a look at my cutie mark, and that’s when I noticed something else, my headphones were still around my neck. I put them over my ears for a second, they still fit, sort of, and they were still playing music. As they were wireless there was no wire that indicated where the music originated from so I tried what Firewall did when he first got to Equestria, I reached to my side and pulled it out of my nothing. It worked, there I was holding my mp3 player in my hoof, I stared at it dumbly for a few moments before silently placing it back into my nothing and racing forwards to catch up with the others who were, by now, several metres ahead. ‘I got nothing.’ The skeptic admitted, defeated for the moment, ‘Good, I don’t want to hear you for a while.’ I replied, turning my attention back to our location as we passed through a set of double doors and arrived in the main palace room. I’m not sure what you would call it but it is where the thrones are, the Throne room perhaps? Anyway, the name of the room wasn’t exactly on my mind at the moment, a certain alicorn was for there she sat, in all her glory, Princess Celestia.

I pondered bowing for a second but when seeing the informal way the others just trotted up to her I decided against it.

‘Celestia!’ Firewall shouted, drawing the attention of the mare,

‘Firewall, you’re back.’ She stated, a small smile appearing on her lips.

‘You better believe it.’ He replied, his trademark grin appearing again. Celestia nodded slightly and turned to her pupil, her smile widening almost imperceptibly.

‘Twilight, my faithful student, I see your mission was a success, I hope you didn’t have many problems?’ Celestia asked,

‘There were a few kinks but nothing especially bad.’ Twilight replied, pride in her voice.

‘Excellent, well done Twilight, you have performed even better than my expectations.’ Celestia said and Twilight’s smile broke out, glowing in pride. So far Princess Celestia hadn’t so much as looked at me so far but I could tell she had noticed me and I knew she was going to ask me questions soon. However she turned back to Firewall,

‘I expect you wish to see Princess Luna, no? You can find her in her room, likely sleeping at the moment but I don’t suppose she would mind being woken up for this.’ Celestia said to him,

‘Thanks, I’ll be on my way then.’ He replied, leaving as fast as possible without galloping.

‘Prince Storm Wing, you may take your leave, and you too.’ The Princess said to Storm Wing and the guards sitting either side of her. They seemed uncomfortable with leaving the princess but didn’t argue with her and before long it was just the three of us.

‘Now then,’ she said, turning back to Twilight, ‘May I begin with asking why you thought it necessary to bring another human back with you?’ She didn’t say this is a condescending tone but the tone a teacher may take when asking their student to explain why they wrote a certain answer down.

‘Well, if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here right now. He... it would be better to just tell you the whole story.’ She replied, Celestia nodded in agreement and Twilight set about telling the Princess the story of how we got Firewall back to Equestria, from her appearing naked on the bus, me giving her clothes, her mentioning Firewall, me saying I know him and then fainting. At this part I blushed but neither seemed to notice. She went on to say how she and the bus driver carried me off the bus and when I awoke we went back to my apartment, how I gave her food and pyjamas and a place to sleep. How we went to the library and I found out where Firewall lived, the bus ride to his house, the meeting and her trying to prove her existence and finally the spell that brought us all to Equestria.

Celestia sat silently for the longest time, staring in to space as she weighed up every possibility.

‘I see...’ She said, pondering what she should say next,

‘So human, what is your name?’ She finally asked,

‘Well, my human name is Dan, I don’t know what my pony name should be, if I even should have one.’ I answered.

‘I see...’ she repeated, turning back to Twilight who was looking as nervous as I felt, ‘So, this human, Dan, was a great asset to your mission but you still haven’t explained why you brought him back here.’ She questioned. Twilight swallowed before answering,

‘Well, it seemed very coincidental that I would appear right next to someone who would not only know me but know Firewall too, and be willing to help me get him back to Equestria, I just thought that maybe he played a greater role than just helping me find Firewall.’ She replied. Celestia didn’t seem surprised by the answer, like that was what she was expecting Twilight to say.

‘I trust your judgement Twilight but one question still remains, what should happen to him now.’ She said. It took several moments to realise that she was waiting for a reply from me.

‘Huh? Me?’ I said rather eloquently.

‘Yes, Twilight has given you the opportunity to take one of two choices, I support Twilight’s decision and so it is up to you, will you stay here in this foreign world or go back to your normal, relatively speaking, life?’ She asked me. I didn’t have to think for long, both sides of my brain in unison spoke out, ‘Stay here or we will never forgive you.’ Can’t argue with that, I reasoned and said my answer.

‘f you would allow it, I wish to stay in Equestria.’ Celestia smiled again,

‘How did I know you were going to say that?’ She replied ‘Now we have to work out where you will stay whilst in residence here, I don’t suppose you wish to stay in Canterlot do you?’ She asked.

‘Umm... no thanks, I think I would prefer it if I stayed in Ponyville. I replied,

‘I see...’ Celestia replied for the third time today, ‘any ideas as to vacant rooms in Ponyville?’ she directed that question at Twilight,

‘Well, I have a guest bedroom he can use.’ she replied with a small smile. I smiled back,

‘Thanks, Twi’ I replied. If Celestia noticed my use of a nickname, she didn’t react, she only said,

‘Then it is settled, I’ll have the chariot set up for you, I have to go check on my sister and Firewall, you have no idea of the mischief they can cause together.’ She said this with a smile and departed the room very regally.

Me and Twilight looked at each other, unsure as to what we should do next, eventually we both blushed, having realised we were staring at each other and quickly turned away.

‘I guess we should go wait for the chariot, when we get there you should prepare yourself for a Pinkie party, I suspect she’s already her the news that me and Firewall are back with a new pony. She said.

‘Yeah.’ I replied. We waited only a few minutes before the chariot arrived and a regular guard, not a Sky Archon rallied us into the vehicle. There were so many thoughts going through my head at that moment, each one clamouring for attention. However, when we took to the skies, they were all wiped away with the pure breathtaking beauty of the land below. And there in the distance, was Ponyville with its insanely colourful buildings. I settled back into my seat and sighed in happiness.

End.

Author’s note 2: Just so you know the story is exactly 10,000 words long, there’s my OCD kicking in. This is my first time writing anything longer than about 2500 words and so is an unprecedented success for me. Also, it is my first time writing any sort of story that actually worked so I apologise for any crappiness I’m sure my writing has. Thanks for reading though! Also, me not mentioning what my cutie mark is is intentional, I did it because I couldn’t think of one Below is a short bit a few months after arriving in Ponyville, I wrote it because the idea popped into my brain one day but I couldn’t be bothered to extend it so I just plonked it in here, Have Fun.

Dan Foad

I had been living in Twilight’s tree library for about 2 months now and everypony seems to have accepted me. At this moment I was just settling down on the sofa with a set of Twilight’s research notes, they were a fascinating (if complicated) read, these particular notes were on the draconequus Discord and his chaos magic. Even though I knew the story of how Discord tried to take over Ponyville it was still thrilling to read it from Twilight’s perspective. However, just as I got comfortable, Twilight breezed in and said to me,

‘Hey Dan, Pinkie is throwing a party down at Sugar Cube Corner, again. What to come with me?’ I gave a chuckle, Pinkie Pie was always throwing a party for some reason or other.

‘No thanks, I’m gonna have to pass this time.’ I replied, Twilight seemed surprised and scrutinised me closely for a few moments.

‘You Ok?’ She asked, a concerned look on her face, ‘You seem... subdued today.’ She elaborated.

‘Yeah I’m fine, it’s just... If I tell you, you have to promise to tell anypony, Ok?’ I replied, placing the book down gently beside me, bookmark keeping my page. Twilight’s concerned look deepened,

‘Ok...’ She replied hesitantly.

‘You see,’ I said, inhaling deeply, ‘today is my birthday.’ Twilight’s face changed almost instantly to one of relief,

‘Is that all? I thought you were ill!’ She replied, before her expression once again changed, this time to confusion, ‘But... why can’t tell anypony it’s your birthday? Don’t you want a birthday celebration? I gave a sigh,

‘You may want to sit down, this is quite a long story.’ I told her. She complied and I began my tale.

‘It started when I was twelve years old, in my family we had this tradition where on our birthday we were allowed to do something special, whether it was go out to a restaurant or the beach or something else. Previously on my birthday, I would usually ask to go to the beach as it was in the Summer break so I would never have school on my birthday so we would get a full day together. This usually worked pretty well, but there was almost someone that couldn’t come with us, like my brother going out with his friends, my Dad working etcetera. So, on my twelve birthday, I decided something different, I declared that my birthday would be a day for relaxing at home. There would be no work, no going out with friends and no cooking. At first I was met with skeptism but I knew what I wanted and eventually everyone agreed to it. I initially thought that people wouldn’t like it but when the day had ended, everyone told me what a good idea it was. And so my birthday became the one day in the year when we were guaranteed to not do anything other than relax at home, even when we split apart, going to University, marriage and so on, we still held true to our promise and, even though we weren’t together, we still relaxed at home. And so, even though I’m in a different world, I want to carry on the tradition, please. And as for the reason you couldn’t tell anypony else, I was more referring to Pinkie, I have no doubt that she would throw a party, and while they are fun, they aren’t part of my relaxation. I’m sorry Twi’ I told her. She sat silently for a few moments before nodding slowly. I realised that this was the first time thinking of Earth since my arrival, I found that while I missed my life, I had no desire to go back, I liked it too much here.

‘There’s no need to apologise, I understand and, if you would permit it,’ She said ‘I would like to join you in your relaxation please.’ She finished shyly. I let out a smile,

‘Of course you can.’ I replied, she smiled back and called Spike down from his room, when he arrived she told him to send a message to Pinkie Pie,

‘Tell her, I’m sorry, but I’ve just stumbled across something in my research and I am not to be disturbed until tomorrow, please.’ Spike nodded and replied,

‘Ok, Twilight, I’m on my way.’ Looking suspiciously at the both of us before departing. After he left I turned back to Twilight and said,

‘Thanks Twi, this means a lot to me.’ I said this truthfully, my birthday relaxation was important to me.

‘It’s not a problem.’ She replied with a smile before walking over to one of the bookcases an pulling out a thick tome with her magic. She carried it over to the sofa and sat down next to me, opened the book and began to read.

And that’s how we spent the day, very occasionally getting up to swap books, or to grab a snack from the kitchen. Night fell just as I finished the last page of my book, Spike had stayed at Pinkie’s party after the message had been delivered so we were undisturbed for the entire day. I placed the book on the table beside me and looked over a Twilight. She was asleep with her face still in a book, I gave a smile and gently removed the book without moving Twilight. Once the book was removed she started leaning on me, still asleep, I gave a quiet chuckle, Twilight barely ever got any sleep as both a night owl and an early riser, seems like she needed that relaxation day. I wrapped my wing around her and succumbed to sleep.

Daniel Foad:

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