//------------------------------//
// Arrival, With Goal In Mind 
// Story: A Grownup's Tale 
// by VectorVineyard 
//------------------------------//

	A young man awakes to the blaring alarm on his phone. The phone is set on the desk across his dorm room, prompting him to get up and start his day to keep from waking up his roommate. The young man is able to lift his head full of brown, curly, bedridden hair and pace to the desk to shut off his alarm. Knowing that losing his momentum now would only lose time, he pulls a shirt and a pair of pants from his drawers, throws them on his bed, and pulls socks over his feet. He takes his clothes, as well as a comb, belt, and bottle of deodorant, to the bathroom to change. Moments later, the now fully dressed college student prepares a glass of water and grabs the mouthwash.

The young man's name is Bryan. He is 18 years old, fresh out of puberty, and a college freshman. The semester so far had been no more difficult than previous school terms because of his early scheduling, can-do attitude, and lack of distractions such as parties, games, and most social events. Bryan spent his time paying attention in class rather than talking to others, and as a result knows as much about people as any other bystander. By now he realizes his early mistakes yet accepts his loneliness. A circle of four to five people calls him friend, and the rest of his high school class accepts him as an acquaintance, yet at times he yearns for the companionship that only an intimate relationship can provide. Perhaps this yearning is the remnant of his fantastical wishes.

You see, Bryan used to enjoy a show called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He understood why those who called themselves "bronies" could appreciate the show - the animation style gave a nod to Japanese anime, and the characters were designed to be more realistic when it came to their quirks or problems. In a sense, those cartoon horses were liked because they were relatable; because ponies were more like humans. Bryan did not call himself a "brony" or openly talk about the show. All he did was watch the show and the content of the fanbase. He read fanfiction (only that which met his standards) and looked at the artwork and began to create an Equestria of his own, where he was a part of it. Where he could fight or defend or romance whomever he pleased. It was addictive.

But Bryan grew out of the fandom during the final summer before his move to the local university. One night, after finishing a fanfiction concerning Fluttershy and some generic character, Bryan began to think about his priorities. He thought about how impossible it was to think that he could ever join those horses, to escape the world for even just a little while. He thought about the other fandoms he grew out of in which he desperately hoped that some force would take him into fiction. He just stopped dreaming.

Bryan had once last dream of Fluttershy and moved to the next town in the following morning.

Now it has been four months since his first day as a college student. His very first semester was nearly over, and he had already applied to all his available scholarships online. He was passing all his classes and recording many scholarship hours and receiving paychecks, and he had settled into his routine. Wake up, get dressed and cleaned, go to class, eat, go to class, return to the dorm, and surf the Internet until it was time for bed. A lot of his time was spent daydreaming, ironically enough. But now, he dreamed about real things - about the TV club and his student job and what he would learn next in Web Page Design. He thought about things that were normal for a college student. For some reason, he was happy.

Bryan took his wallet and phone and student ID and left his room. He plugged in his earbuds and listened to light hip hop as he biked to class. It was Monday, so he would go to his Media History class and then his Statistics class before eating lunch and returning to his dorm to prepare for the next half of his day. He copied a powerpoint in history and fiddled with a calculator in statistics and ate a chicken wrap with fries. He unpacked his backpack and repacked it and checked his YouTube and Facebook and his saved webcomics for updates. He went to Web Page Design and then to Critical Writing, and then returned to the dorm once again. He packed for the next day and sat in his chair, catching up with the Internet and lurking forums.

And then something interesting happened.

Bryan sat at his desk refreshing pages when he had decided to take a walk to pass the time. He got his wallet and phone and student ID and went downstairs, passing by the lounge to see if he could pass the time listening to other people instead. No-one was there. He exited the building through the lobby and started walking down the sidewalk of fluttering leaves, stopping to chat with a friend of his for a few moments before parting. Bryan's voice was quiet; this was the first time he had talked outside of class for a long while. Bryan walked down the campus road and through all the shortcuts he had memorized. He walked up and down the quad and walked in and out of various buildings and eventually found himself before a dead end. He checked the time; surely something would have updated by now. But as he turned to go back to his dorm, blackness overtook him.

He fell for what seemed to be an eternity before waking up on a dirt path. He slowly got up and looked around him. He was on a road in a forest; behind him the road got narrower and darker, but in front of him the road led out into the light. In the distance Bryan could see a cottage with a grass roof with a small bridge crossing over a stream in the front. He saw that cottage and then he knew where he was. All the memories and dreams came back to him as he fell to his knees and realized what had happened.

Bryan had escaped reality. Bryan was in Equestria. He rose and walked to the cottage. His walk became swifter with each breath. He wasn't surprised that he was in Equestria. He had hoped for this, after all. Bryan already had a goal in mind. He was going to find out what power got him here. He wanted to know if he could control that power. If only he could use that power, he could escape the excruciating boredom of human life. His pre-pubescent dream had come true, but not fully. At least Bryan had hope again.

He reached the cottage and saw its resident closing the door behind her. She had bags on her back and her back to him. Bryan took the opportunity to sit down on the ground so as to not scare Fluttershy as much as he could standing up. She turned and noticed him and froze on the spot. This is good, Bryan thought, at least she isn't screaming.

"Please don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you," he said in the quietest way he could, "What's your name? I'm Bryan."

The cream colored pegasus relaxed only slightly, but she understood that she was not in immediate danger. "I-I'm Fluttershy. U-um, I'm sorry for asking this, but w-w-what exactly are you?" she asked him.

"It's all right, Fluttershy. I am called a human. You could say that humans are like hairless, intelligent monkeys," Bryan replied, showing his hands as a comparison to monkey appendages. He thought about his next words and decided not to lie to Fluttershy about where he was from, "I'm from another world, if you can believe it. I sort of appeared here without rhyme or reason, and I would like to find out why."

She looked apprehensive. "Y-you seem calm for someone who just got taken to another world."

"You seem calm for someone who just met an alien. I don't mean any harm to you or this world. I just want to know how I got here."

She looked at me for minutes before finally settling down. "O-okay. Um, would you like to come inside?"

"Thank you, I would love to." While a year ago Bryan would have been a nervous wreck, now he calmly followed the pony into her home. There isn't time to get caught up in past fantasies, he thought, there's always the possibility that I could wake up in the real world any moment now. Fluttershy is a nice girl, and also a horse. I need to keep things realistic.

And so the young college freshman joined a cream pegasus for tea.