> New Surroundings
>  by Silver Rush
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Introduction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	This story revolves around a teen-aged boy named Ben. He was a semi-ordinary kid in high school. He was fairly quiet, he got good grades, he hung out with friends every other weekend to play D&D (where he played the part of Dungeon Master), and he always did right by his friends. His best friend was a girl, Audra, who was almost the polar opposite to him. She was chatty and outgoing, was an A-B student, and admitted herself on at least one occasion to be a bit of an butt.
But our story doesn’t begin with them. Our story starts in Equestria, at the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight had been thinking about Canterlot High again. She kept thinking about her friends there and how drastically different their world was from hers. She just had this weird feeling that she couldn’t shake, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. Then it clicked for her; if Equestria and Canterlot High, two completely separate worlds, existed simultaneously, could other worlds exist? It was there that Twilight Sparkle set out to find the answer to that question.
She first started with the magic mirror. She knew it was a link between Equestria and the human world where Canterlot High resided. But what type of magic was used to create that link and maintain it? She poured through her library, searching for an answer to that question. It was only after visiting the Star Swirl the Bearded section in the Canterlot Library that she found the answer she was looking for.
Star Swirl had traveled to many worlds using the mirror, as a matter of fact. However, according to her research, he had locked the portal to a single world, hence why it now only allowed for travel between Equestria and Canterlot High. The spell he used to manipulate the portal was missing as well, but, after working tirelessly for several weeks, Twilight had managed to piece together the spell she needed to unlock the portal. Now she stood before it with her friends; Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike, she wanted all of them to be there for this moment.
“Why, exactly, are you doing this again?” asked Fluttershy, slightly nervous as to what Twilight was about to attempt.
“Just imagine the possibilities,” responded Twilight. Her horn lit up and a book levitated over from the far wall and opened to the Mane 6. “Star Swirl the Bearded spent years travelling to different worlds, trying to catalog as many as possible. But even he admitted that there may be too many worlds to count.”
“That really doesn’t answer my question,” said Fluttershy.
“I’d go with Fluttershy on this one,” said Applejack. “What’s the point of all this?”
Twilight actually wasn’t sure of the answer to this. “I guess I just want to see what all these other worlds are like,” she said finally.
“That kind of curiosity can be dangerous,” said Rainbow Dash. “I am so up for this!”
“There could be an infinite number of ice cream flavors!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, seeming elated at Twilight’s idea.
“There could also be an infinite number of Pinkie Pies for all we know,” said Rarity. “We already had to deal with that situation once.”
“Yeah, who knows what’s on the other side of that portal?” said Spike, stepping forward to Twilight. “There could be anything!”
“There must be something,” said Twilight. “Everypony, I just need you to trust me on this. Even if curiosity brings trouble with it, I know we can handle it together. So what do you say?” The others huddled together for a moment, mumbling with the occasional exclamation from one or the other. Finally they all broke the circle.
“Let’s flip the switch,” Spike said with a smile. Clearly curiosity had him and the others as well. At this, Twilight Sparkle turned to the mirror and the mechanism holding it, her horn glowing with the magic to travel across worlds.

Ben sat on his couch next to the television, staring at a blank document open on his laptop. His open tabs included Google Drive and various chat rooms for fans of MLP. It was on Earth, our original, genuine, bonafide Earth, that he resided. The TV he had on, but was barely listening to at the moment, was currently on Netflix, playing the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. His best friend Audra sat on the other side of the couch, having been the one who introduced the show to him. Her eyes were shifting from the look of concentration on Ben's face to the cartoon on screen.
“What’re you working on there, bae?” Audra said teasingly.
“Stuff,” he replied, rubbing his eyes after staring at his computer screen for so long.
“Dude,” she said, “you’re watching MLP on Netflix, browsing MLP chat rooms, and writing MLP fan fiction on your laptop, and you still don’t acknowledge the fact you’ve become a Brony. Just embrace it, man.”
Ben pulled the screen of his laptop down. “You got two out of three,” he reposted. “I may be watching the show and hanging out in chat rooms, but the Google Doc is completely blank.”
“Why is that?”
“Writer’s block maybe? I don’t know.” Ben shut his laptop completely and hit the pause button on the TV remote. “I’ll be right back,” he said, standing and walking across the room towards the back of the house. He was originally headed for the bathroom, but he stopped before reaching it and instead stood in front of the full-length mirror in the hallway. His bookbag sat next to his bedroom door next to the mirror, haphazardly flung to the side the previous Friday. He looked at the mirror closely. He thought that he’d seen something in or on the mirror, something almost resembling a ripple in water.
“Ben,” Audra called down the hallway for him, “what are you looking at?”
“I could’ve sworn…” Ben mumbled to himself. He shook his head, pushing the thought aside. “It’s nothing,” he yelled back to Audra. “Just thought I saw something weird in the…”
This last part was cut off by the sudden opening of the massive portal in front of Ben. It radiated pink and purple, blinding Ben momentarily and forcing him to shield his eyes from the light. He felt his feet slipping, but before he could react, he lost his balance and toppled over. The portal acted like a vortex, drawing Ben into it. His first instinct was to grab onto the nearest object to try and stop himself, which turned out to be his backpack and didn’t help his current situation.
“Ben!” Audra yelled from the other end of the hallway. She bolted down the hallway toward him. By the time she reached him, he was halfway through the portal and quickly disappearing through it. Audra grabbed at Ben, merely catching the same bookbag he’d been able to grab. She pulled with all her might in vain, but soon she lost her balance as well, the both of them being pulled into the massive wormhole. As soon as they passed through the threshold, the portal closed behind them, disappearing as quickly as it came.
> Chapter 1: Arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy stood before the massive portal Twilight had opened. The swirling vortex was both beautiful and intimidating at the same time. Everypony just stared into the massive wormhole, wondering what they were supposed to do next.
“So… now what?” Spike said, finally breaking the group’s silence.
“I guess we see what’s on the other side,” Twilight replied. Twilight approached the portal slowly, her eyes studying it as if it were another equation on a chalkboard. Her burning curiosity drove her to inch closer and closer to the swirling vortex. She was mere inches from the portal when two forms burst forth from the vortex. They crashed into Twilight, sending the three of them hurtling across the room to crash into the bookcase 30 feet away.
“What the hey was that!?!” yelled Applejack. The Mane 6 all turned to faced the toppled-over bookcase. Books were scattered every-which-way, and in the center of the carnage laid three bodies. The first of them was Twilight, but the other two they didn’t recognize at all.
“Are you alright, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, floating over and helping Twilight to her hooves.
“I’m fine,” Twilight replied. She then looked down at the two ponies that had knocked the wind out of her. “But who are they?”
The two ponies were both unconscious, sprawled out in the mountain of books. One was grey in color, with a single horn sticking out of his blue-and-teal mane. A pair of glasses sat next to him, presumably flung from his face upon crash-landing in Twilight’s bookcase. The other pony was a pegasus, with red streaks in a straight blond mane that flowed down her orange body. Despite flying across the room, both unconscious ponies seemed relatively unharmed except for one or two bruises maybe.
It was a moment before anypony attempted to wake either of them, but eventually Rainbow Dash went forward and poked the grey pony in his side. His eyes shot open at this, however, and he involuntarily shot back from her hoof into the previously toppled bookcase.
“Whoever just touched me in my sleep, please never do it again,” he said. “That is the one thing I can’t stand.”
“Relax bro,” said Dash. “Didn’t realize you were a light-sleeper.”
“I’m sorry,” said the grey pony, “ who said that? I can’t see two feet in front of my face.”
Twilight levitated the pony’s glasses toward him. “Maybe these will help with that?” she said. She placed the glasses on his face, and, as his eyes began to focus, a look of shock and confusion came over him.
“What the…?” he said, looking around at the group of ponies before him. “Where am I? Why am I surrounded by ponies? Why am I sitting in a pile of books?”
“Who are we?” said Rainbow Dash. “Who are you, and what pony uses the term ‘feet?’”
“My name is Ben,” replied the grey pony, “and I most certainly am not a -” he cut himself off when he went to raise a hand and instead raised a hoof. “What the heck?! What happened to my fingers?!”
“Please relax,” Twilight walked over to Ben, attempting to calm him down. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re from a human world?”
Ben could barely form words to speak. “I...  uh... well… yeah, that’s right…,” he paused for a moment, then added, “and, surprisingly, this isn’t the weirdest thing to happen to me.”

After the initial stammering and confusion, the Mane 6 and Spike took Ben and the other pony, whom he told was named Audra, to Ponyville Hospital. Ben dragged the still-unconscious Audra on his back to the emergency room, where nurses placed her on a bed. All the while, Twilight was questioning Ben about the world he came from; its current situation, its economy, politics, the current social order, she wanted to know everything. Ben answered her questions to the best of his ability, but he still had one permanent thought stuck in his mind; how the heck did he get teleported into a cartoon?
“Uh, do you all mind leaving the room before Audra wakes up?” Ben asked once she was laid down.
“If I may be so bold as to ask, why?” said Rarity.
“Well, you all saw how shaken up I was when I first woke up,” Ben replied. “I figured I would try to explain things to her gently.”
“Of course,” said Rarity. With this, the Mane 6 and Spike exited the room, leaving Ben sitting next to the sleeping Audra. Ben looked at her, realizing that, despite Audra looking like a pony, he still recognized her somehow. 30 minutes later His mind was so abuzz with questions, Ben didn’t even notice Audra was starting to wake up.
“Wha… where am I?” she mumbled, rolling over in her bed. As she began to focus she slowly realized that the person whom she thought was Ben sitting next to her was a pony. She immediately sat straight up in bed, furiously glancing around the room.
“Hold it, hold it,” said Ben. “Before you get all freaky-deaky on me, let me answer your questions. Yes, we are in Equestria, more specifically Ponyville Hospital. Yes, I am a pony, and so are you currently. And no, the Ponyville gang doesn’t know that they’re a TV show in our world. Any other questions?”
Audra paused for a moment, looking at Ben. Ben knew the look on her face currently was one of consideration, confusion, and thought. “Okay,” she said after a few moments.
“You don’t seem very alarmed,” Ben replied.
“Well, you summed up the current predicament pretty nicely. Plus I’ve kinda been through weirder.”
“That’s the exact same thing I said when I woke up.”
“One question, actually; are we going to tell them about the show or just keep that information to ourselves?”
Ben considered this for a moment. “I don’t think things need to be complicated further,” he said. “It would be too weird to try and explain.”
“Agreed.” Right after Audra said this, a certain pink-haired pegasus poked her head in the door.
“Um, I’m sorry, is she awake?” said Fluttershy.
“Yeah, Audra’s awake,” said Ben. “Tell the others it’s okay to come in.” Ben leaned in to speak in Audra’s ear. “Just play dumb,” he whispered. “Let’s not act like we know everything about Equestria already.”
“You should be a pro at that,” Audra whispered back. At this the Mane 6 entered the hospital room, Twilight at the front of the herd.
“Ah, good to see you’re alright,” Twilight said. “Your name is Audra, correct?”
“That would be right,” Audra replied. “And you are?”
“I’m Twilight Sparkle. This is Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike.”
“I’m gonna go ahead and say this,” said Rainbow Dash. “You two have some of the weirdest names I’ve ever heard.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled, objecting to Rainbow’s rude remark.
“Honestly, I could say the same thing about you all,” Audra replied to Rainbow quickly.
“Well, we’re from completely different worlds,” Twilight stated. “There are bound to be some differences in naming conventions.”
“If I may interject here,” said Ben, “and I don’t mean to be rude, but can we go back to our world now? How did we even end up in your world anyways.”
“I was performing an experiment on a magic mirror that allows for travel between different worlds,” said Twilight, “your world, ours, and at least one other world included.”
“That may be one of the most preposterous explanations I’ve ever heard,” said Audra. “However, I don’t see any reason you would lie to us.”
Ben looked from Audra to the Twilight “You have to excuse Audra,” he said. “She takes some getting used to.”
“Don’t worry,” Twilight replied, “we all have friends like that.” At that very moment Pinkie Pie bolted forward to look at Ben and Audra.
“That’s crazy!” Pinkie exclaimed, grabbing Ben’s cheeks. “You two say you aren’t ponies, yet you look EXACTLY LIKE PONIES.” She switched from smushing Ben’s cheeks to smushing Audra’s. “What’s up with that?!?”
“I’m noth shure,” Audra tried to speak through the face-smushing, “buth I don thin grabbin by cheeks ith helpin.”
“Oh, sorry,” Pinkie apologized. “Well, since you’re new in Ponyville, you deserve something sweet! Why don’t we head to Sugarcube Corner and see what the Cakes whipped up for today?”
Ben and Audra looked to each other, then back to everypony else. “I don’t see why we can’t stay for a while,” Ben said for the both of them. After all, how many chances do you get to hang out and eat cake with your favorite TV characters?

“I thought I’d never see the day,” said Rarity, “when somepony could eat just as much cake and ice cream as Pinkie Pie and not get sick.”
Ben blushed slightly. “What can I say?” he replied. “I like cake.”
After checking Audra out of the hospital, the Mane 6 took Ben and her to Sugarcube Corner, where the Cakes were happy to cater for them. At least they were before. Now they were slightly terrified that somepony could eat as much as Pinkie Pie.
“Trust me when I say,” Audra spoke up, “this guy has the biggest stomach you’ve ever seen.”
“Maybe so,” said Pinkie Pie, not to be outdone. “But how well can he resist ice cream headaches?”
Ben smiled. “Is that a challenge?” he asked. “Because, frankly, I think I could beat you.”
“We’ll see about that,” Pinkie replied. “Rainbow Dash, find your referee hat, it’s a match!” As if on cue, the table was cleared and the Cakes placed two giant chocolate shakes in front of Ben and Pinkie Pie. Ben was surprised how quickly things had escalated, but he was also kind of excited. Rainbow sat across from the two competitors, ready to announce the start.
“Oh, this ought to be good,” said Applejack.
“I concur,” Rarity added.
“Alright you two,” Rainbow Dash said. “Once your lips touch the straw, you drink as fast as you can. If one of you drinks noticeably slower than the other, then you automatically forfeit. Ready you two?” Ben and Pinkie Pie poised over their drinks in anticipation.
“Go!” At Rainbow Dash’s start, Ben and Pinkie Pie began furiously drinking their shakes. Everypony was startled to find that Ben was practically keeping up with Pinkie Pie, and within fifteen seconds they had both finished. When they were done, they just squinted at each other, waiting for the other to react. After a few tense seconds, both broke their gazes and grabbed at their temples.
“BRAIN FREEZE!” they yelled simultaneously, falling to the floor in icy agony.
“Welp,” said Rainbow Dash, “that was a completely perfect tie.” Everypony laughed, even Ben and Pinkie Pie when their headaches wore off.
“Hey, this has been a lot of fun, but Audra and I should probably be getting home,” Ben said. “Our parents are probably worried sick right now.”
“Of course,” said Twilight. “We’ll take you back to the mirror. We should do this again sometime, though.”
“Absolutely,” Ben agreed. What they didn’t realize as they spoke, however, was that Ben and Audra would be staying quite a while longer.

“What happened?!?” exclaimed Twilight. “What did this?!?”
Everypony looked on, standing in the middle of the library. The place hadn’t been completely cleaned up yet, but the bookcase was set back up. But nopony regarded that; they were all fixated on the shattered mirror. The only way between Equestria and Ben and Audra’s home sat in a hundred tiny pieces, scattered across the floor.
“It must’ve been the spell I used to open the portal,” said Twilight. “The surge of alicorn magic must’ve caused it to overload. We were so focused on the two of you at the time that we didn’t even notice the mirror had shattered.”
“Are you serious?!?” Ben yelled. “Are you telling us that we’re stuck here with no way back?!?” Normally Ben would not burst out yelling like this, but shock and anger had decided he should act differently than usual.
“Woah, dude!” yelled Audra. “Just relax.”
“We are utterly and completely shut out from our world and everything we know, and you’re telling me to relax?!? The time for relaxation is over!”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight spoke out again. “Look, no one is trapped anywhere. There must be a simple way to fix this. I’ll send a message to Princess Celestia about the mirror and ask about how the mirror can be repaired. We just need a few days.”
Ben took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry for bursting out like that,” he said. “I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s alright,” Twilight said. “I know exactly what you’re going through.”
“Thank you,” Ben replied. “If there’s anything we can do to help fix the portal, don’t hesitate to ask us.”
“Don’t worry one bit,” said Applejack. “We’ll help you two get home.”
Audra, who had been listening to the conversation from the side, let out an exasperated yawn. “Hey, while we’re waiting for the mirror to get fixed, is there anywhere we could crash?”
“Well, the castle here has more than enough room,” said Twilight. “You’re both more than welcome to spend the night.”
“Hey! We could make it one giant sleepover!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
“That actually sounds really fun,” Audra agreed.
“Interesting,” said Ben. “An all-mare sleepover except for one stallion.”
“Please, Ben,” Audra retorted. “This wouldn’t be the first time you’ve been in that situation.” Everypony laughed at this, even Ben, although he was blushing at the same time. Why was he blushing? Because Audra wasn’t wrong about that. As the group moved out of the library, however, Twilight pulled Ben and Audra off to the side for a moment.
“Just putting this out there for you two,” said Twilight. “If you’re going to be staying in Ponyville, you might consider using different names. After all, ‘Ben’ and ‘Audra’ might be considered odd here.”
“Well, what do you suggest we call ourselves?” asked Audra.
“Well, let’s see here; names for a male, grey unicorn pony with blue-and-teal hair and glasses…,” mumbled Twilight. “Does ‘Silver Rush’ work for you?”
“I like it,” Ben replied.
“And a female, red-orange pegasus pony with straight yellow-and-red hair and a bit of an attitude… how about ‘Autumn Flash?’”
“Nice!” Audra replied. “Suits my personality.”
“Hey, are you guys coming?!?” Pinkie Pie called from the other room. “We found marshmallows in the pantry!”
“Aw sweet, marshmallows!” Audra (or Autumn Flash) yelled, chasing Pinkie back into the room. Twilight and Ben (Silver Rush) looked at each other and smiled, then followed the rest of the group to marshmallows.
> Chapter 2: Pursuit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ben (aka Silver Rush) woke up in a cold sweat. He’d been sound asleep up until that point, but now he sat straight up in bed, not knowing where he was or why he was there. Then he remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m in Equestria.” Part of him was hoping this was part of a dream, but of course it wasn’t
Ben knew why he was still awake; he’d dealt with this particular problem before. His insomnia was kicking in again, and Ben knew it wouldn’t go away anytime soon. He went to jump out of bed, but forgot he now possessed hooves instead of feet and toppled to the floor, blanket and all. He managed to pick himself quickly, however, and still retain some of his dignity.
Ben sighed deeply. After the Mane 6’s slumber party antics had subsided, Twilight had offered Ben and Audra (or Autumn Flame, if you prefer) their own rooms for the night. He thanked her for her kindness, since he was still slightly uncomfortable being the one guy amongst a group of girls. Ben liked girls, but his socially-awkward brain didn’t have the same sentiment.
“So,” Ben mumbled to himself, “if I’m gonna be awake, I might as well do something productive.” He then dragged himself, blanket in tow, to the door. he went to use the door handle and realized, again, that he lacked hands. However, he remembered he did possess a horn. Deciding he would try to use it, Ben tried to focus on the door and command it to open. His horn glowed a deep blue, and the door swung open to smack him square in the face.
“So much for trying to be quiet,” Ben mumbled, cursing his clumsiness. He stepped into the hall, pulling the door closed behind him, and glanced around. It seemed, by sheer luck, he hadn’t disturbed anypony. With that, Ben crept downstairs to the main level, heading in the direction of the library. He didn’t consciously head in that direction, so much as wander and wind up in the library.
The first thing Ben saw in the library, after his eyes adjusted, were the pieces of the broken mirror. The mirror that had carried him and Audra to Equestria in the first place, and the only thing that could take them back. Ben gazed at it, regarding how extraordinarily improbable these circumstances were. That somewhere in the vastness of the multiverse there existed a world inhabited by sentient ponies, that those ponies could find a way to navigate said multiverse and open a portal to his universe randomly, which would link to a mirror in his world and suck both him and his best friend through and transport them to those ponies’ world….
Ben realized that his nose had started bleeding as he gazed at the broken mirror. “I’m thinking way too hard about this,” he said to himself. Ben held the blanket to his nose (sorry, muzzle) for several minutes until the bleeding stopped. After that, he found a broom and dust pan in a storage cupboard and swept up the pieces of the mirror, spreading them across one of the empty tables in the library (he was starting to get the hang of magic, he thought). Then, lacking anything else to do, Ben lit a candle and consulted Twilight’s enormous catalogue of books and literature.
“How can one pony, even if that pony is a princess, own so many books?” he said aloud. He startled himself, realizing he’d said “pony” instead of accidentally saying “person.” Ben shook this thought from his head and delved into the massive tomes of the library. He grabbed anything that stood out as interesting, from books of magic spells to information on the mirror, from old pony fairy tales to the history of Equestria. Ben knew it would be a long night, and he wanted enough reading material to outlast it.

Twilight Sparkle awakened early, but gently as the sun rose into the sky. Spike was sprawled across the floor at the foot of her bed, as was his desired area to rest, so Twilight rose quietly and made her way to her door. As she did this, however, Twilight realized something; she could something coming from beyond her room, but whatever it was she couldn’t identify immediately. She opened her door and poked her head out, sniffing the air.
“What in Equestria is that?” the alicorn whispered to herself. She made her way down the hallway towards the stairwell, her hooves quietly clopping across the floor, following the scent. As Twilight made her way down the stairs, the smell grew stronger for her, and she started to hear a clattering and clanging coming from the kitchen. Twilight took the second door on her left in the throne room and, to her surprise, saw platters and bowls levitating around the room. In the center of the chaos stood Ben, reading from a book at the stove as a levitating bowl of batter stirred itself next to him. When he noticed Twilight, Ben just looked at her with a grin on his face.
“Good morning, Twilight,” he said, doing his best fancy butler accent.
“Uh… good morning, I suppose,” Twilight replied slowly. “What in the sweet name of Celestia are you doing in here.”
The plates and bowls Ben was levitating laid themselves down. “Making breakfast,” Ben replied, still feeling slightly smug. At that moment a timer dinged, signalling him to open a waffle iron holding four perfectly cooked waffles.
“You got up early just to make everypony breakfast?” Twilight said smiling slightly, eyelids half-closed.
“No. I’ve been up half the night, actually.” As he said this, Ben pulled the waffles from the iron, setting them atop a mountain of twenty-something others. “I couldn’t sleep, so I got out of bed and went to read in the library.”
“Read anything in particular?”
“A little bit of everything, actually. Equestrian history, magic, information on the mirror, old ponies’ tales, anything that caught my eye.”
“I suppose all the plates and bowls was you testing out your magical abilities.”
“Exactly. Eventually dawn broke and I decided to try my hand, or hoof I should say, at baking. I was a decent cook back in my world, there’s no reason a magic mirror should’ve changed that.”
“Well, it smells delicious.”
“Thank you.”
“What in Equestria is that heavenly aroma?” a voice called from the other room. A mare’s head poked through the door to reveal the voice was Rarity in a pink robe and slippers.
“That would be waffles,” Ben swiftly replied.
“Did someone say waffles?!” called another voice from behind Rarity, whose face appeared above Rarity’s head to reveal herself as Audra.
“Can somepony please tell the others before everypony starts crowding the door?” Twilight asked.
“I’m on it,” Rarity said, retreating from the door.
“This guy,” Audra started, “is one of the best cooks I’ve ever met. He made me a birthday breakfast in home-ec at school and it was awesome.”
“It was nachos, hardly an actual breakfast,” Ben replied. “May I also mention you took pictures of my butt in the apron I was wearing and sent them to everyone we knew.”
“Best birthday ever,” Audra said smugly. “So, what are we waiting for? Let’s eat!”

Pinkie Pie licked her lips once she’d finished her second plate of waffles. “That was delicious!” she exclaimed. “Did you add cinnamon to the batter?” Ben tapped the tip of his nose to signal she was correct.
“Brilliant, absolutely marvelous!” Rarity commented.
“I wish my stomach were bigger,” Applejack spoke in agreement.
“It’s nothing, really,” Ben said, not used to excessive praise.
“Um, forgive me for asking, but where did you learn to cook like that?” asked Fluttershy.
“My father,” Ben replied. “Almost everything I know about cooking, he taught me.”
“If I didn’t know better,” said Rainbow Dash, “I’d say that was Pinkie Pie’s baking.”
“Honestly, I would’ve thought so too,” Pinkie Pie added. Ben simply smiled and looked at the floor, blushing slightly. He would’ve preferred not to be the center of attention, but he was flattered that the ponies thought so highly of his cooking.
“Thank you all very much,” he said, doing his best to be polite.
“Hey, random question,” Twilight chimed in. “What is your special talent? At first I’d guessed it was writing based on your cutie mark, but I’m still not sure.”
Ben craned his neck to look at the cutie mark emblazoned on his flank; a blue quill and lightning bolt crossed over each other. “Well, there is an explanation for that, I think.”
“Is it one you have to think up?” Audra poked her way into the group conversation. “Because I’m awesome at making stuff up.”
Ben cut a look over to Audra. “You probably know the answer as well,” he said. “Remember when we were in the school talent show?”
“Oh yeah,” Audra said. “You wrote the song that we performed for the school.” She spoke to the rest of the group. “This guy is a beast on the guitar.”
“And it’s probably safe to assume,” Twilight said “that the headphones on your flank represent your singing talents.”
“Most likely,” Audra replied. “I’m probably one of the most rocking singers you’ve ever seen.”
“Well, aren’t you full of it,” Rainbow Dash butted in.
“She’s not lying,” Ben added. “She’s really good. Wouldn’t have won first place if she wasn’t.” Rainbow Dash regarded Ben and Audra, but finally just shook her head and decided to take their word.
“Anyways,” Twilight chimed in, “I’m assuming you want to work on fixing the portal, right Ben?”
“Right, right,” Ben replied. “I’ve already found a spell to repair the mirror itself, but as to how to restore the magic, I have no clue as to how to fix it.”
“Well, we better get started,” Twilight said. With that him and Twilight started off toward the library, talking amongst each other as they walked.
“Hmmm…,” Audra mumbled to herself at Ben’s and Twilight’s sudden departure.
“Uh, pardon?” Fluttershy overheard Audra. “What was that?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Audra replied. “It’s just that… I’ve never seen Ben really become friends with someone that quickly. It took a year for him to really open up and accept my friendship.”
“Really?” Applejack responded. “Cause I wouldna guessed that by the way he’s been acting so far.”
“Well, he’s gotten pretty good at hiding his social awkwardness in public,” said Audra. “You should’ve seen him when I met him.”
“But why the breakfast?” Rarity asked. “You don’t just make the random ponies you met yesterday waffles. Not that I’m complaining, of course, but still.”
“Honestly, Ben is the type of person - or pony if you like - to do something like that,” Audra rebutted. “He’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, period. He’ll help out random strangers with their groceries if he sees they’re having trouble. Of course, he has to see them first. Ben can’t see a thing without his glasses. But once he sets his mind on something, nothing will deter him from his goal.”
“Speaking of which,” Applejack piped back in, “should we go see if those two need help with the mirror?”
“Oh, right,” Audra realized. “Let’s go see what we can do.”

A few minutes later everypony was in the library, pouring through ancient tomes and looking for any information as to how to fix the Crystal Mirror. They had a bountiful source of information; the entire history of magic, catalogued notations of experiments done on the portal, and even Star Swirl the Bearded’s personal notes. However, none of these contained any information on how to reestablish a link between Ben and Audra’s world and Equestria. After a few hours of fruitless research, nopony could find any relevant info.
“You know,” said Spike, “if Star Swirl was so smart, he would’ve written down how he made the Crystal Mirror in the first place.” Spike’s face was buried in the yellowed pages if one of Star Swirl’s journals.
“Well, I suppose it makes sense that he didn’t,” said Twilight, levitating several ancient scrolls around her. “The mirror is a powerful artifact, he didn’t want anyone to try and replicate it.”
“Well, is a user’s manual too much to ask?” Spike rebutted.
“Is a break from digging too much to ask?” Rainbow Dash looked up from her personal mountain of books. “My neck is killing me.”
“We need to keep working,” Ben said, obviously tired but refusing to act like he was. “I just really want to go back to my world. Not that this world isn’t bad, I’d just like to be in the world I know.”
“C’mon,” Rainbow said exasperatedly. “Why don’t we just take a few to relax? Maybe we could all go out and get lunch or something.”
Twilight looked up from her scrolls and smiled. “I suppose that does sound good. Anypony else up for lunch?” Several excited voices greeted her ears, signalling their agreement. Ben, however, said otherwise.
“You all go on ahead,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you.”
“Really?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah,” Ben replied. “I’ll just finish going through this stack and meet you all for lunch. I shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“Well, suit yourself,” Twilight responded. “C’mon girls, let’s go eat.”
The prospect of food does sound nice, Ben thought as the others left for the Hay Burger. But I’m close, I can feel it. He kept leafing through the papers, hoping to find some detail as to how to repair the mirror. He poured over the notes, trying to find something, anything. Then something caught his eye.
Ben looked up from his notes and across the room to see his backpack. No way, he thought. He ran to the backpack and unzipped the main pocket. That’s right. I grabbed this thing as I was being sucked through the vortex to Equestria. Maybe there’s something in here that will help.
Ben furiously dug through the backpack and pulled out his school materials; his World History textbook, Algebra II and French homework, and his Chemistry textbook. At the bottom of all this, however, he found one thing, a silver dollar that his grandfather had given him. Ben was elated; any time Ben had to make a difficult decision, he flipped the coin, and it had never steered him wrong.
Will I find a way home? Ben thought to himself. He then tossed the coin into the air, catching it in his hoof. When the coin landed on heads, Ben felt reassured that he would fix the portal.
It was at that moment Ben realized, however, whenever he was looking for info like this, the answer was always at the bottom of the stack. Sure enough, he went straight to the bottom of the stack and found it.
“Yes!” Ben yelled so loud the others must’ve heard him from Hay Burger. “Yes yes yes yes yes! The notes Star Swirl used to make the mirror!” Ben quickly pulled together the many shattered pieces of the mirror and cast the spell to reassemble them. Now was the moment of truth, however. Ben cast the spell, his horn lighting up a magnificent shade of blue. The mirror and its frame drew together, the magic illuminating the two. Suddenly the room was engulfed in bright light, blinding Ben momentarily. Once he could see, however, he saw the fruits of his labor; the portal, fully restored to working condition, sat before him.
Ben could leave. He’d finally accomplished what he’d set out to do and fixed the mirror. He could finally go back home to the world he knew, to all the people he knew and loved. He could return to a world that made sense, where there were no talking horses or baby dragons, where there was no such thing as magic. He could just go.
So why didn’t he?
> 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.