It started out to be a typical summer day in Australia. Now, I wasn't anything special or significant. I was 20 and ran a small boat hire business, that barely made enough to get me by, because I wasn't particularly qualified for anything else. I never drove, even though I had a licence. I just preferred walking.

I was just headed home when a storm came over. Again, nothing unusual about that for summer in South-East Queensland.

So anyway, I kept walking, not particularly noticing or caring about the rain, my drenched clothes or anything else for that matter. Earlier that day, my girlfriend broke up with me through a text message, but I've been dead inside too long to care. It started when I saw the human race for what it truly is, as the last of my friends drifted from contact, but I didn't really die inside until I lost my entire family last year. Old age took my grandfather, drug abuse caught up with my father, my uncle lost to his cancer, my mother and younger half-brother died in a car accident that put my older sister in hospital where she died the next day and my grandmother was taken by the grief. I attended all their funerals, but not once did I cry. I was sad, yes, and wanted to, but I didn't cry.

...But I'm digressing.

As I got to my small, two bedrom house that I was renting, I got into dry clothes and turned on the computer, despite the storm being in full swing now, to continue my usual mediocre procedure of dealing with misanthopy haters and looking into what was considered to be pseudo-scientific, crack-pot theories on time and space.

Now, I must have dozed off, because I woke up with my head on the desk with the computer still on. I checked the time and read it as either 10:37 or 11:37, but I wasn't too sure. Switching the computer off I looked out the window to chek the storm, when there was a bright flash across the street, near the unfinished apartment building that was being built.

At first I dismissed it as lightning and was about to head to bed when I realised that I couldn't hear any rain or thunder.Looking out the window again, I saw a small lump on the street and decided to take a look, throwing on a pair of black jeans, a black T-shirt and a grey overcoat. As I investigated the lump with my old boating torch, I saw that it was a blanket covering something.

As I lifted the blanket, I gave a yell and stumbled back, throwing the blanket away like it was a brown snake.

There, sleeping in the street, was a tiny grey foal with a yellow maneand tail.

But what really drew my attention was the tiny, feathered wings on it's back.

Apparently woken by the noise I made, the foal yawned and looked at me.

Those eyes.

Those beautiful, amber wall-eyes.

Scared by the noise I'd made, she grabbed the blanket and pulled it over herself, leaving just her eyes and nose in view. i just knelt there with one hand out, whispering, "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you.", over and over until she finally stepped out and cautiously came closer.

After she sniffed my hand, I gently brushed her muzzle with the back of my hand and soon realised how cold she was.

Gently picking her up, I took her into my house, layed her on my couch and got her a fresh, dry blanket. As I placed the blanket over her, she almost immediately went to sleep.

The moment I walked away, the full gravity of the situation hit me...like a tonne of bricks. I started pacing, trying to make sense of it all. I was so engrossed in my thoughts, I never noticed the light slowly growing brighter from my couch until it consumed everything in the room, myself included.

I tried shielding my eyes, but I couldn't move.

Then the only snesation I knew was a searing pain beyond all possible imagination. The best description I can give is having every cubic milimetre of flesh shredded by needles.

And then...nothing.

The only way to describe it is 'bliss'. No more pain, fear or anger. No more joy. No more sorrow. No more anything. A complete end to all that connects us to what we hold as true and what we attempt to make ourselves.

All I had was a single recurring thought that didn't even seem mine. A familiar question.

'Why are we here?'

And then I found myself here.

In a smoking crater.

In a large field.

In Equestria.

...Not that I knew that at the time