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// The Wish 
// Story: Never Wish 
// by Ximer 
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It had been another hard day at work, tirelessly reviewing the medical data sent by hospitals in preparation for the new processing system to take effect. Most of them were getting it right, but there were a few in the state that were slower than others. Not that they weren’t smart, some simply lacked the man power others had to keep up.

With a sigh, I left all thoughts of work behind me, and began the long drive home. It was a cold winter in the south which meant snow would more than likely start to fall in the following months. An alarm started to sound on my phone with the message "post office" which jarred my memory of a text message my sister had sent earlier.

She was the explorer in the family, literally, I was the boring child. Doing what I was told, never trying to step on toes which always seemed to backfire for some reason. I was the good kid, and got accused of favoritism on more than one occasion. Still, Isabella and I tried to remain close, even if she was on another continent.

Once I was at the post office I quickly checked box 29, and sure enough there was a package inside with a note attached to it. I could have opened it then, but I decided to wait until I got to my house. Whatever was inside felt heavy and it gave me something to look forward to.

I impatiently unlocked the door to my house, and dropped most of my stuff off in the kitchen before heading to my room. Once there, after fighting against the packing tape, I opened the box to find an egg shaped stone. It looked more like a door stopper than any natural stone and appeared to have been cut into its current shape.

Confused as to why a door stopper had needed so much packaging I decided to open the letter, hoping it would provide some explanation.

Daniel, how long has it been? Three years perhaps? The time spent away from you, mom and dad has started to escape me. When I volunteered to go see new places and live my dream, I never really took the time to ask myself where I’d be right now. Still, I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to go on my adventures, and hope that I can go on more in the future. A part of me wishes you would have come with me that day, which is why I sent you this wishing stone. Your life must be pretty dull and I felt a wish might be able to liven it up, even if it seems childish I thought you would appreciate the gesture. Now, stop being boring and live your life.
With love
Isabella

I put the letter down and picked up the ‘wishing stone’. Her ‘boring’ comment had cut deeper than it probably should have. It made me question if people really thought I was just plain, bland, and uninteresting. While I enjoyed my job and felt like I was doing a good thing, I couldn’t help but sigh when I had to explain what I did for a living greater detail than most. 

I had tried multiple times to get into hobbies and crafts, only to fail miserably at them. I was mediocre at art, and I had even tried pottery which I ended very quickly after receiving massive flak from my friends. I had finally given up and just…settled, my sister was right I was boring.

My brief period of depression gave way to anger, not at anyone but myself for what I had become. The more I thought about it the angrier I became. I gripped the stone tighter and tighter in my hand as I looked in the mirror at myself. I saw a sad expression staring back at me despite how angry I was. Was this why she had left me, because I was boring?

“I’m boring huh…you know what I wish for you worthless piece of junk? I want to prove people wrong, I can be…I don’t know, not boring! Ugh I’m so mad I can’t think straight!” I exclaimed.

“I wish I could be…I want to be some body, not just another face. Oh who am I kidding?” I asked aloud throwing the stone away.

I sat on the bed and hung my head in defeat, until a sharp pinging noise brought me out of my pity party. It wasn’t at a painful pitch, just annoying and attention grabbing. I looked at my phone, thinking something might be wrong with it, but found nothing.

I suddenly felt a brief tugging sensation that made me jump from the bed. I turned my head behind me to see nothing but the stone, that seemed brighter than before. The tugging returned, this time pulling me off my feet and onto the floor.

The pinging noise had grown louder and the room was starting to grow brighter. The noise had soon reached a deafening crescendo. I closed my eyes as the light in the room became blindingly bright. It felt like a wave was washing over me, only instead of retreating back into the ocean this wave seemed to continue to flow around me, pushing me in some unseen current.

“Sleep…” said a voice over the pinging.

The noise and light suddenly faded, as did the rest of my senses. I felt exhausted from whatever it was I had just endured, and the voice’s advice started to sound pretty good. I briefly wondered what had happened before I succumbed to sleep, those questions could wait.

I opened my eyes as the sun’s rays cruelly roused me from my sleep. I tried to grab a handful of bed sheet to cover my face, only to feel something cold and loose. I opened my eyes lazily to find my fist was full of dirt. Even more alarming was where I had been sleeping.

“A…forest?” I asked with a yawn.

I was surrounded by apple trees, which seemed to be in rows, making my first assumption inaccurate, this was an orchard. Most of the apples seemed ripe, and a rumbling in my stomach made me forget about questioning how I ended up here in the first place. I found the trees to be only slightly taller than me as I got to my feet.

“Was there some sort of LSD dust or drug in that box?” I asked recalling last night’s events.

I was ignorant when it came to drugs, being the good kid in school. While it had paid off with a good job and nice house, it left me out of the loop when my friends would make jokes about them, and had served to cast my name in with the boring lot in school. Had Isabella tried to force an adventure on me? If so it seemed to have worked a bit too well.

“What in tarnation are you supposed to be?” asked rather accented voice.

I nearly jumped out of my skin upon hearing it. I spun around, afraid of being shot for trespassing with a southern accent like that. I didn’t have an excuse to save myself if it came to that, I honestly didn’t know how I ended up in an apple orchard.

Instead of seeing a shotgun wielding woman behind me, I turned to see an orange pony with a hat. It had a confused expression on its face and the eyes were unusually large as it studied me.

“Is someone there?” I asked ignoring the pony for the time being.

“Down here!” came the voice again.

This time the pony seemed to be a bit miffed at something as her eyes never left me. It gave me the chills looking at her eyes, they were just unnatural.

“Are you okay?” …asked the pony.

I froze after watching her mouth move, and produce intelligible words. Dolphins and Chimps, two of the smartest animals, weren’t even capable of this feat, yet a pony that came up to my kneecap had just asked me a question. I did what any sensible human being would do upon coming to this realization.

I screamed, and turned to run before feeling a sharp pain in my forehead as I collided with a low hanging branch. In a matter of seconds I was on my back clutching my head. The pain spiking through me was enough to convince me this wasn’t a dream, but it didn’t seem possible.

“Ah reckon that’s a no.” said the pony with a light laugh.

There was a tug on the front of my shirt and I felt the ground slip away as my torso was pulled upright. The pain in my forehead lessened as a result and I opened my eyes again to see her sitting across from me.

“How are you doing that?” I asked.

“Doin' what?” the pony asked in return.

“Talking, ponies can’t talk.” I said rubbing my forehead.

“Shucks everypony Ah know of can talk. Name’s Applejack, what’s yours?” Applejack asked.

“Daniel…wait, every pony? As in there are more of you?” I asked wide eyed.

“All over Equestria. This here is Sweet Apple Acres, what were ya doin' out here anyway?” Applejack asked.

A multitude of thoughts were demanding my attention at once. How far from home was I? If this pony, Applejack, didn’t recognize what I was did this mean I was the only human? The most pressing of all though was if I was still on Earth, and if I wasn’t how would I get home?