//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Arrival 
// Story: New Surroundings 
// by Silver Rush 
//------------------------------//

	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.