New Surroundings

by Silver Rush

Chapter 3: Climax and Finale

Ben stood in front of the portal for a long time, lost in his thoughts. He just stood motionless, gazing into the swirling pink-and-purple vortex, its endless spiral almost hypnotizing. When Audra, Spike, and the Mane 6 returned from lunch, they found him still staring into the swirling abyss.

Audra’s jaw dropped. “Dude, you fixed it!” she yelled. “But… wha… how!?”

“I found Star Swirl’s notes on the original construction of the mirror,” Ben said, not breaking his gaze with the portal. “From there, a simple assembly spell was all it took.”

“That’s… that’s amazing!” Audra responded enthusiastically. “We can go home, we can tell everyone we’re okay!”

Ben turned to face the rest of the group. “Can we?” Ben asked. “Can we go home, or rather should we?”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, confused as to what Ben was talking about. “I thought you wanted to return to your world.”

“I thought I did,” Ben replied. “I thought I wanted to go home, to see the people I loved and held dearest. I thought I wanted to the world I understood, to be somewhere that makes sense to my brain. But now I’m not sure anymore.”

“I’m not following here,” Rainbow Dash piped in. “You were se dead-set on returning home and now that you can you don’t want to? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Exactly,” Ben said with a rising tone of voice. “Equestria doesn’t make sense to my brain, and yet I can’t get it out of my mind. After everything I’ve experienced here, from waking up in a pile of books, to the ice cream headache contest with Pinkie Pie, to making everypony waffles for breakfast, I can’t get Equestria out of my mind.”

“So, you’re saying you don’t want to leave?” Pinkie Pie interrupted.

“I don’t know!” Ben yelled. “I want to see my family and I want to experience having hands and fingers again, but in a day you all have become some of the best friends I’ve ever had! I can’t just leave… I can’t just… I don’t know what to do!” At this Ben broke down on the floor, collapsing into a fetal position.

“Woah,” Audra looked just as shocked as everyone else. “I’ve never seen him like this before.” She walked up to Ben, patting his back and trying to calm him down.

“I really hope we didn’t break him,” Rainbow Dash said, not meaning to say it out loud. Applejack elbowed Rainbow in the side for saying this, but everyone did look concerned. Eventually Audra got Ben to his feet, his eyes red but without tears.

“I’m sorry about that,” Ben sniffed. “It’s just that my heart is really torn on this.”

“I think I understand,” said Twilight, stepping forward to put a hoof on Ben’s shoulder. “I felt the same way when I went through the mirror once before. But honestly, I really can’t offer any advice for you except for one thing.”

“What’s that?” Ben asked.

“Follow your heart.”

Ben looked straight at Twilight for a moment. He glanced around at everyone else in the room; Audra, Spike, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie all looked to him to see what he would do next.

“You know what?” Ben said, turning to the portal. “I can do one better.” He stepped toward the portal to be right on the threshold. He then pulled out his silver dollar coin, turning it over in his hoof as he stood before the vortex.

“Really?” Audra said with a tinge of annoyance. “You’re going to leave something like that up to chance?”

“Not chance,” Ben replied, “fate. Heads, I stay here in Equestria and live out the rest of my life here. Tales, I return home and I do my best not to look back.” He then flipped the coin, tossing it straight into the air and catching it on its way back down. Ben looked down at the coin in his hoof… and saw it was heads.

Ben looked back at the rest of the group again, and tossed the coin through the vortex. “Forget fate,” he said, “I’m writing my own destiny here.” Everyone’s jaw dropped, all except for Audra, who ran straight up to Ben and gave him a big hug.

“Good, because I would’ve hated to stay here without the comfort of teasing you about everything,” Audra said through the hug.

“I love you too, Audra,” Ben replied with his own brand of joking-ness.

“Call me Autumn Flash from now on,” she said.

“Fine then, you call me Silver Rush,” he retorted. Suddenly Silver Rush and Autumn Flash were dragged away from the portal into a group hug, all of them laughing and crying tears of joy.

A few days later Silver Rush stood before the portal again, this time knowing exactly what he was doing. This time, however, he stood with a piece of parchment paper next to him. He had spent a long time thinking about what to write, but now he believed he’d nailed it.

“Are you sure about this?” Autumn Flash asked, walking up beside Silver.

“We need some sort of closure,” Silver replied. “Did you get your letter written?”

“Yep,” Autumn said. “You?”

“Its all here,” Ben said with a bit of melancholy. He unrolled the scroll to read it one last time:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know you must be worried sick about me right now, but I’m writing to tell you both me and Audra are fine. Yes, she’s with me, and no, she isn’t the reason we disappeared. I know you probably want to know where we are and how we got there, but its honestly too weird and too difficult to explain to even try to write down, but that really doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that we’re fine, more than fine really.

I know I haven’t always been the easiest person to talk to, to get to open up. But where I am now I can do just that; open up, be myself, be the person I really want to be. I know you miss me, and you’re probably crying as you read this, but I’m begging you, please don’t cry for me. The place I’m in now is amazing and beautiful and… words just can’t do it justice.

You always told me to follow my heart in everything I did, and that it would always carry me on the right path. Well, my heart has drawn me to the place I am now, and I recognize that. They say that ‘home is where your heart is.’ Just know that, while I may be gone, part of my heart will always stay there with you.

Love, your faithful son,

Ben

Silver breathed a heavy sigh, hoping that this message would reach home. He struggled to maintain his composure, but Autumn could plainly see that he was getting emotional. She put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder, telling that him it would be okay. Then, together, the two humans-turned-ponies stuffed their letters into two glass bottles and tossed them into the mirror. Silver closed the portal as the two messages disappeared into it, and both him and Autumn breathed in and exhaled deeply.

“So… now what?” Autumn turned to Silver. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“Live,” Silver said. “We live, here and now, and above all, we live with no regrets.”

"So do you still deny being a brony?"

Silver looked at Autumn and smiled. "I think we established that when we chose to stay in Equestria," he said with amusement. With that, Silver and Autumn turned from the mirror to their new lives, not needing to look back to remember.

Comments

[Thebravenorse]

Not a bad story at all. Keep up the good work man.

[Silver Rush]

6116124 Thanks man! That made my day!