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?