//------------------------------//
// Be careful what you vote for... 
// Story: Forever in Equestria? 
// by DawnShine_ 
//------------------------------//

	It was a bright and early Sunday morning or, at least you thought it was bright and early. Or at the very least early. You mind rummaged through whatever figment of memory that had retained from the previous night. Ahh so it was indeed Sunday morning. But, you somehow felt something was just a tad bit off. 

You got this feeling ever so often, this sensation where somewhere deep in the recesses of your mind something is gnawing at you, warning you that something was wrong. Despite all your other senses that adamantly affirming you that everything was fine, that feeling of something being wrong still lingered at the back of your mind. 

You decide to brush it off as just one of your many worries. You did tend to be very cynical and paranoid at times and this, was apparently just one of those times. It was a Sunday after all, what could possibly go wrong?

You raise your hand to your chin before scratching it, feeling the rough and prickly surface of the scrawny beard present on your face, before reaching an arm’s length outward to grasp your smartphone, feeling the cold metallic surface. You then brought it up mere inches from your face then pressed a button on the side, the screen immediately lit up, executing your command. 

The clock on your primary screen then confirmed that it was 9:37 am, not a particularly out of the ordinary time for you to be waking up. You slide your lock screen aside, before displaying your home screen, which was decorated with a certain cyan blue coat, multi-coloured mane pegasus that was in a particularly awesome pose. You grinned slightly, the very thought of that mare always brought a smile to your face.

You sift through all the notifications that had popped up over the night, most pertaining to either a friend's game request on social media or some new fan art about some show about ponies that had piqued your interest over the past year or so. Doing so took up about half an hour before you finally decided to shift your attention to making break feast. 

The thought had elicited a rather generic response from your stomach, in a form of a faint, deep, low-pitched growl. Realising how hungry you were, you begrudgingly forced yourself to sit up then, sit on the edge of your bed. Having two feet on the floor, you lifted yourself up and stood there momentarily, then made your way across the room to the bathroom. 

You rinsed you face with water like you do every morning before glancing at the reflection that stared right back at you. You had dark eye bags that rested just below both eyes, an obvious indicator of your lack of sleep. For years now your face has been plagued with acne, now however not quite as apparent or serious as before, that only being a sign of your inevitable aging. Being in your late 20s, you stood at a height of about 5'5". You figure was satisfactory, to say the very least as you were thankful that your height made you look slimmer that you actually were. Letting out a mild sigh, you exited the bathroom to finally make your way towards the kitchen.

After pouring a reasonable amount of water into a glass pot, you slotted the transparent container into the coffee making machine, tinkered with the settings, and then heard a calming hum. You felt something soft and furry brush up against your left leg, then glanced to the floor to see your alabaster feline companion. 

"Mornin' to you too Winter," you said in a sleepy voice then, covered your mouth with your palm, muffling your yawn. 

You took a few steps forward and leaned forwards, against the kitchen counter and opened a rather large olive green cupboard door. In groaned in protest before opening fully, exposing what lay hidden within the storage compartment. 

Rummaging through the contents of the cupboard, you finally let out a gasp of victory, marking your success then, reached out and grabbed a pack of food that provided sustenance for your pet. It was adorned with bold, capitalised writing, in a slightly dark gold cursive font that read, 'PREMIUM QUALITY CAT FEED: SALMON FLAVOURED'. It also had a cerulean background and a picture of a smiling cat on the outward facing side. You retrieved a small dish that resided below the cabinet, pour a significant amount of cat food into the bowl, then bent over and placed it on the floor. 

You knew that the your coffee would be done in a few seconds so, you took a mug from the dish drying rack, placed it atop the counter right in front of the device then, anticipated the machine to finish making your beverage.

Sure enough seconds after that the coffee maker let out a moderately loud ‘Click’ alerting you that its job was done. You poured the steaming hot liquid into the mug then began tearing open packets of creamer and dumped them into the mug. After about twenty packets or so, you felt content and began stirring the mixture you had recently concocted with a metal spoon then, took a tiny sip. Letting out a sigh of satisfaction, you carried the mug all the way across the hall and into your room.

A sight of shelves lined with miniature stuffed ponies of various colours and sizes welcomed you as you entered your room. Placing the mug beside the computer, you hit several switches beside the computer before the monitor emitted a tiny blue glow. Several screens flashed before you before a futuristic overlay was presented before you. You held the mouse within your palm and shifted it around. Corresponding to your motions, the pointer then highlighted a box called ‘Desktop’ and you clicked it.

The image of six ponies of varying colours showed up on screen and you smiled once again. You notice that your Wi-Fi had already been automatically connected; a feature that was relatively new and had only been around for the past week. You immediately clicked on the easily recognisable small red, yellow and green circular icon with a tinier blue circle within itself and began surfing the internet. 

You were immersed in the seemingly endless amount of pony-related items on the internet and you were overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of pony images, fan written fictions, music and so on that existed. You felt as if you could have surfed the internet all day long before you were reminded that you needed a meal. Glancing at the clock on your desktop, you notice that it was already 12:18 noon and your eyes widened in shock. 

“Has it been that long already?” you say, rubbing both eyes with our fingers, still surprised by how fast time went by.

You got up from your chair and once again, made your way across the room, out the door and headed for the kitchen. You opened the shiny silver refrigerator door, squatted down and glanced past the shelf after shelf of nearly empty plastic food containers. To your dismay you found nothing that you could consume at the moment and was about to let up and close the refrigerator door before something caught your eye. 

You pushed aside several rows of food containers and found, to your amusement a single container of spaghetti. You chuckled to yourself, remembering that you yourself had stored the container in the refrigerator a couple of days prior. You then walked a few feet in front of the fridge towards the nearby device. Opening the microwave, you threw the container in, slammed the microwave door shut, and punched several buttons to set the re-heating timer for several minutes then, saw a pale amber glow being emitted in response. 

Returning to your computer in your room, you then visited a website well-known throughout the community of male fans that shared a similar interest for ponies. This site was simply known as ‘Equestria Daily’. Having almost adopted an innate nature to visited the site everyday (as the name suggests), you were all too familiar with what the site had in store for you. What you didn’t know however was that this day was going to be one where Equestria Daily would bring you far beyond what you could have ever imagined. 

Browsing through the myriad of pony related posts, you finally stumbled upon something that came up on Equestira Daily occasionally. A poll. You did not take any of the polls held seriously as you didn’t find any purpose in them. You thought that the polls held was just something the editors of the site used as filler when there was a lack of other pony content. Scoffing, you clicked on the post anyway and that lead you to a screen that provided a few options for you to choose from.

Apparently this time round the poll asked its viewers “You are offered a chance to be teleported to Equestria forever, but have to do it immediately. You also get some options, would you do it?” Glancing through the options available, you randomly choose ‘Yes, teleport and become a male pony’ and hit the ‘Vote’ button.

Seconds after you had made that decision, you heard a faint ‘Ding’ in the distance and you were alerted that your lunch was ready. You headed towards the kitchen hastily, fuelled by a fervours hunger. Little did you know that carelessly made choice would alter the rest of your life.

Whilst away from your computer within that short period of time, a lavender glow had enveloped you entire computer from your monitor to your keyboard, sending sparks of what shared a resemblance to electricity down every square inch of the surface and through all the electrical components present or in anyway, connected to the computer. Yet the display left everything unscathed and unaltered. 

You reached the kitchen and pulled the container filled with your meal out of the microwave and onto the counter. While allowing it cool for a moment, you tugged on the handle of the drawer from below the counter and it glided outwards. You then fished out a spoon and fork from the heap of unsorted utensils and held it firmly in your grasp. 

Deciding that the spaghetti had cooled for long enough, you grabbed the container and utensils and was about to make you way back to your room. Before doing so, you paused for a second, picked out a decent apple from a pile in basket on the kitchen table, and then made your way back. 

You entered your room through the door, had rubbed the apple on your shirt and was very close to eating but then spotted an odd notification on your screen. Holding the apple in your left hand and you mouse on your right, you sat down and read the peculiar message intently, focusing on what it said although there was quite literally only two words present. On the centre of the light amethyst bordered, white background pop-up was a text that read ‘Execute?’ and a selection bar that stated ‘Yes’. Not wanting to waste any more time, you clicked on the ‘Yes’ button and awaited for a response. After a few seconds, you determined that it must have just been another tro…

All thoughts were emptied from your mind as you felt yourself swirling round and round and saw your monitor engulf your entire figure in seconds. You were sucked into a black, opaque void at unimaginable speeds and felt every single atom within your body somehow separate and diffuse in the air. In a torrent of horror and confusion, you let out a long a desperate scream, pleading for help but, no sound had escaped your mouth. All it took was mere seconds for the entire scene to take place and finish. True enough, in almost a blink of an eye everything had settled down but you were nowhere to be seen.