COMING TO GRIPS
Chapter One: A Storied Beginning
Aaron sighed, looking up from his work. Writing these stories wasn't easy, but they were the closest thing he had to being in Equestria himself. If only he could have that chance, to even meet somepony, he could be truly happy. Getting up to get something to eat, he noticed a tiny shimmer in the air, but easily dismissed it as nothing more than a mere trick of the light.
It was nearly six, so it was dinner that Aaron sat down to eat. After a delicious meal of pasta and salad, he returned to his study to continue his writing. It was only then that he saw what stood there watching him. A creature he knew well, of purple hue and powerful magic: Twilight Sparkle herself. She seemed confused, however, looking around without recognizing what she saw.
"What is this place?" She sounded accusatory, almost as though blaming him for her presence.
"This is my house. I live here," Aaron replied. "But what are you doing here? How did you get here, and why have you come? I mean sure, it is an honor to be visited by none other than the princess' protege and the bearer of the Element of Magic, but you must have some reason for coming here?"
Twilight was immediately suspicous of this strange creature. She had never heard of such disproportional, stick-like beings, so how did this one know of her? "How do you know me?" she demanded, aggressively. "And yet you claim to know nothing of my arrival here? I think you have some explaining to do!"
Her horn glowed, the door swung shut, and a chair came up from behind him, forcing Aaron to sit unceremoneously as Twilight's angry eyes bored into his skull.
"First I at least need to know what you're talking about," Aaron protested meekly. "What exactly happened that brought you here? What do you know of this? Because if you know anything about what is going on here, you know more than I do about all this.
"All I know," he continued, "is that we have stories here (best not try to explain television just yet) about what happens in a fictional land we call Equestria, and that your arrival seems to mean that those stories are somehow true. I don't understand this any more than you do, and probably less!"
"So you say you have nothing to do with my appearance here? Nothing to do with my spell going wrong and sending me here?"
"Yes. That is what I am telling you. I don't know how you got here, it's an honor to meet you, and I don't know how you can get back
Dropping his pen to his desk, Tyro stops writing. He shakes his head as his thoughts break apart. What was he doing?
That kind of thing just doesn't happen, even if you want it as much as he does. He would love to go to Equestria, or even just meet somepony from that bright land, but he also knows that his dream isn't a real one... Tyro becomes so caught up in this thoughts that he doesn't see the slight shimmer in the air, only taking notice when he feels the space around him start to warp and go all out of shape.
Then suddenly, there she is: Twilight Sparkle herself. In an eerie parallel to his own story, she demands to know where she is and has has happened. Tyro isn't quite sure, but he has a suspicion...
"Let me guess. You were casting a spell that went terribly wrong and now you're here and you don't know why?"
Twilight was speechless for a moment. "Err, yes, that about sums it up. But how did you know?"
"Call it a lucky guess. Now, before you go all crazy on me, let me explain what is going on here. On this world, there are no ponies—at least not like the ones you know, anyway. Most things work like they do in your Everfree Forest; they work without outside help. The sun and moon move by themselves. In short, this world is nothing like the one that you know.
Instead of ponies, we have humans, creatures like me. Magic of any kind is regarded as nothing more than a myth, because no creature in this world can perform it.
"So I can't help you get home. I can give you food and a place to stay, but that's about all I can do for you. If you want to get home, you're going to have to fix whatever spell brought you here in the first place, if you can."
Twilight remained quiet for some time after this revelation, trying to accept what this "human" was telling her. She might never see her friends again if she couldn't get that spell to work, and she'd have to do it on her own. Sure, she'd done harder tasks before at Princess Celestia' school, but never with so much on the line.
Seeing Twilight become lost in thought, Tyro quietly left the room, threw together a healthy salad, and returning to her, placing it gently where she will be sure to see it. Only then did he return to the kitchen to prepare his own meal.