Ever since Chrysalis' failed invasion of Canterlot, Celestia has been under tremendous strain. Plagued by nightmares of her inability to defend the country, her ability to rule is slowly becoming comprised.
After finally revealing the truth to a still recovering Luna, the two sisters take some advice from their friendly neighborhood draconequus on how to handle the problem.
If there's one sure thing in life, it's that advice from Discord rarely goes according to plan...
My name is Harold Storm. The last few years haven't been all that great. I've got a crappy job, no time for a social life and I'm barely making ends meet. I'm making just enough to pay to go to college part time and work towards an engineering degree. That, at least, should help in the job department if I don't run out of money before I graduate. That was, until an unforeseen death in the family had me driving across country to collect some things that were left to me. The trip there went fine, but on the way home something unexpected happened. I ended up in another world.
A twist of fate, or maybe one that was intended, lead me to Equestria and all the magic that comes with it. With no way of getting back home on my own, I've got a long journey to Canterlot, even with the aid of some new friends. However, magic has a funny way of changing the way one looks at the world...
02-07-17 Woah! Somehow made it to the feature box 
Alternate universe. Princess Luna is still in her younger form from the end of "Friendship is Magic." Takes place after the events of Magical Mystery Cure and the first Equestria Girls but before Season 4 starts. Doesn't follow show's timeline after that but may draw from some events.
I'd like to give a huge shout-out to fellow author, KorenCZ11, for helping me with pre-reading and editing. Then, after all that hard work he went and made me some awesome cover art!
Kinda slice of life with a bit of adventure thrown in. Some other tags may be added as the story progresses.
The vast majority of the story is 1st person, told from Harold's POV.
Part 1 of a 2 part story.
Rated T for some violence, occasional swearing and innuendo.
Note the lack of a crossover tag 
This is not a HL2 crossover, I just happen to like the quote.
What is HL2?
7831091
Half Life 2
Found a mistake:
Then, out of the blue, my dad showed up at my apartment on day.
*one day
Also what type of truck is he driving?
7845663
No that makes complete sense, he showed up on day, instead of on night
Fixed it, thanks for the catch!
Also, a pickup truck (I edited that in as well in one part) I'm purposely avoiding using real models / brands of items so that's as specific is I'm going to get.
I am interested.
7855992
Good! I hope I can hold your interest.
Please sir, can I have some more story
7856678
Soon
I am very adamant at not going more than a week between chapter releases.
I like what you've posted so far! Dusty and Golden are well written, and I am so very glad to see that the ponies aren't having panic attacks due to his appearance or diet. I'm looking forward to the next chapter!
This is great will wait for more!!
They were both dressed like Cookie Crumbles, no wonder Rarity fainted!
And, oooohhhh----the fun that Discord must have created for the diarchs and "that ship's captain"....
)
(I hope you do a side story on that!
7876189
Oh good someone picked up on that reference.
To be honest, I'm not sure if I'd ever write that as a side story, I love Trek and Ponies but I don't know if I could write that story. Who knows though, I won't rule out the possibility.
7876315 Oh, I'm a sucker for any Discord/Q shenanigans, as you can tell if you look at my stuff.
Plus, I really like how you put a huge amount of thought to making so much plausible explanations to what has been given as show canon--the reasons why Celestia pawned off so much to Twilight and her friends: Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Discord, why she failed so spectacularly with Chrysalis. Fantastic job with that!
7876347
I'll have to check em out
Thanks!
I adopted the concept of Celestia and Luna being a tier (or many tiers) above regular ponies. I really like to look at them as, at the very least, crazy powerful immortals, all the way up god like entities. (As you might have noticed from my other works) That being said, MLP the show likes to treat them like punching bags any time a villain shows up (or, since we were talking Star Trek the good ol Worf Effect) so I spend a lot of time thinking of reasons as to why they keep getting so handily beaten.
7876716 I quite understand and agree.
Of course, we fans go and make them "god-like" in power, where the show never really portrays them that strong--but we're all justifying our head canons because they're moving the freaking sun and moon! Even given the "science" I used in Weirder Than Normal, they'd have to have power right up there with a fully-charged Green Lantern battery (not just the ring), a Kryptonian, or anyone from Mount Olympus. And they'd have to be even more powerful if gravity were normal, their sun really was the same size/distance/mass as our sun, and so on...
I just finished what you've done so far, and-- I! LIKE! IT!
Over all, this is VERY well written, although I did find a few glaring errors, which I'll send in PM. (just a few, really)
Heh! That’s a really useful "bucket" to have in a doctor's exam room!
I also like how you made the ponies closer to pony-sized rather than “small dog-sized” that so many others are using--about the same size I'm using for mine.
7876819
Yeah, I've seen a lot of different fan scalings. I tend to prefer ponies on the larger end of what I've run across (so like... pony sized.) They are ponies after all.
I found myself doing a bit of info gathering on actual pony heights and weights and used that as a base. It isn't exact because MLP ponies have different proportions (body isn't as long, legs are thicker, head is much bigger, so I had to kind of guess at a bit but I tried to be as accurate as possible in that regard.
Found a mistake
"Find, I'm only free till dinner time though, then I've got work again," Blue Skies said.
*Fine
I've said it before, but I like the characters you have introduced and their dialogue. They're fleshed out enough to feel like actual people. On the other hand, the ponies are more interesting than your viewpoint character. What drives him? What is he actually passionate about? We're 40k words in at this point, and I can't think of him as anything but bland, if possessing some common sense.
There are some good arguments for scaling up the Equestrian map - the place spans from the frozen north to what appears to be an equatorial environment - but the place would be a bit empty with a third of the USA's population. I personally came up with a figure of about a quarter of the USA's area when I was working out how to depict it, as the trade routes between cities become impossible to maintain without a robust rail or interstate system when you make things huge. Of course, magic! Who knows how anything works. C'est la vie.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
7891679
Thanks, fixed!
7891736
I'm pleasantly surprised when I get good feedback on my characters. I've consistently felt that creating good characters is one of my (many) weak points.
Rather than just answer you directly, I will take a look at the next few chapters and see if they can use any refinement in helping develop Hal a bit more. This story went much longer than I had originally intended, so I think some of his development starts off a bit slower, perhaps too slowly. Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it quite a bit!
I looked to historical population sizes for my data. The US in 1900 was around 76 million while Canada was around 5 million. Mexico was another ~15 million. I then added a bit of a buffer for that to account for other species. As for being fairly empty, it's supposed to be. The southern part of Equestria is very sparsely populated except near the coasts and a few smaller cities. More of the population is spread out in small towns and agricultural communities than large cities. Again I turned to historical data, for rough estimates. I'd put about 60% of the population in a rural setting.
loving this story. i was kind of fooled at first for what i was getting into with the summery for it, i had though i was going to be reading about something with a princess but that was kind of my fault for not read everything. still i am glad to have found this story and surprised it does not have more likes have you added it to any of the major HiE groups?
7891736
i agree, while we have gotten a lot of information about the guy (we know he like the Tremors movies
and he a rough childhood and can shoot a gun 
cause A-MARE-ica %$#^ 
) we have not seen how any of these things have shaped his moral character. i think this is mainly because he has only been reacting to the situation at hand. i think we will see more of his character and what drives him once he has a better handle on whats going on.
7891914
just how long did you see this story going for, OoC?
7892948
I am not the best at story descriptions so that probably added a bit to the confusion.
Yeah, part of that is even though ~40k words into the story, Hal's only been interacting with ponies for a short while. I hope, as the story goes on, that I'll do a good job growing him. I'll be paying attention to that as I'm going through upcoming chapters before they release.
I had originally envisioned something in the 100-125k range for the entire story. Instead part 1 is roughly 150k words. Part 2 will likely be about the same.
7893130
here are some of the bigger HiE groups i frequent
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/202978/library-of-humanity
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/20/human-in-equestria
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/198207/the-good-hie-list
i would also suggest
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/248/author-help-a-group-made-to-help-new-and-old-authors-with-fics
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/1258/long-fics
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/822/humans-arent-bastards
the first two are great places for help with your stories weither it be finding a temp editor or just some idea help getting out of a bit of writers block. the last two are because of length of your story and a generally likable human character which is a lot rare then you would think, so while the groups might not be that big your likely to grab most of the people in those groups. but there are so many more groups out there and these recommendations are just from what i have seen so far of your story. check around for yourself at some point cause it is a great way to get noticed.
Double negative.
7893655
Awesome. I figured out how to add my story to a group and threw it in the "Humans in Equestria" one earlier. I'll check out the other groups as soon as I have some time. Thanks for the info!
7893965
Thanks, fixed.
great storyline. I can't wait to see more of it. Hehe i wonder what He is going to think of Twilight and her friends.
One thing has me concerned about Hal. His headaches are most likely one or more of three likely causes: concussion, dehydration, and/or magic sensitivity.
The timing of the onset of his headaches makes me wonder if he's reacting to the adjustments being made to the sun and moon's positions. The locals' magic use might be low enough for him to not be affected, but the princesses' level of power might be affecting him. I hope that's not the case, but you never know until about Chapter 6 or 7
7894574
I guess you'll just have to keep reading.
This story seems better than what I would assume from the description... Also i just binge read it while I was supposed to be sleeping, you owe me one and a half hours of sleep.
7899676
Thanks, I might need to take another stab at the description, it's not the best.
If I ever get reimbursed for the hundreds of hours I've lost to other fanfics, I'll be sure to send a couple your way.
7899734 I've got an easy 50 mill words read on this site, I've got a lot of debt to collect.
7899763
Heh, I'm only in the 20 million range. Still a lot to call upon but not quite as much.
I believe that is supposed to say "town".
7903415
Yep.
Fixed!
So Dusty is more than just the local doctor--he's actually got medicine as a talent, which pretty much rules out the normal medical conditions Hal might be suffering from: dehydration and concussion. That leaves sensitivity to magic as the next logical reason for his continued headaches. Ouch!
And since it's clear he's been magically modified to speak/read the local language at the cost of knowing English, and if my earlier guess that the adjustments to the sun and moon are still affecting him, then at minimum, it's going to be a lot like having a very bad tooth--achy all the time and especially painful at mealtimes!
He need to get the hell off that planet ASAP!
You need to skim through your dialogue again - you have a few spots where a comma would really help the flow. Do you have anyone that could proofread for you?
I'm curious where this will end up going - I assume that you're setting up something by showing how the ponies are physically leagues and bounds ahead of humans. It's a bit sad that the breezies might be the only sapient species that we could actually overpower. (I don't even want to think about tangling with a minotaur.)
I considered writing a one-shot based on the idea that the magic in Equestria enhanced the fundamental traits of whatever creature possessed it - bolstering the endurance and strength of earth ponies and minotaurs, the ability to fly in pegasi and griffons, the fine magical control of the unicorns, etcetera. When a human is introduced to the equation, what traits would be made stronger? Our endurance? Our ability to recover from incredibly traumatic injury? Our capacity for rational thought? I planned to end the story in a Flowers for Algernon-like sequence where the displaced human burns brightly with the light of genius for a short while, only to perish from the deleterious effects of magic channeled through a creature never adapted to such an environment.
If he ever feels inadequate he can always tell that humans traveled to the moon with technology that's at the halfway point between them and him, and that we made devices that allows us to talk, see and share information to anyone on the planet at will.
7909487
If you want to know how bad I am with commas, I'll point out that yes, I do have a proofreader (mentioned in the description) and I also go over my stuff and I'm still missing some because I'm just that bad with using them that even with a proofreader they can't all be caught.
I definitely would say ponies are physically far more capable than humans, even just based on the show itself without extrapolating, they don't have trouble doing anything a human could do, and can do quite a bit more through magic and other means.
I won't get too into where I'm going, as I don't want to spoil anything, but I will point out that humans are outmatched physically by many species on our own planet. We (as a species) still dominate the planet though.
7909522
It's not really a competition between what humans and ponies have accomplished. Sure he's impressed, but who wouldn't be? And humanity, both in fic and comparing the show to real life, far outstrip ponies on a pure technological basis.
I can neither confirm nor deny that the moon landing may be mentioned in the future.
7909487
That's an interesting concept, magic enhancing some human trait. Normally I prefer fics where humans a magic-less species, but I can't say thinking about what would be enhances doesn't intrigue me.
I will say that in some of the actual fiction books (ie non fan-fics) that I enjoy, one of the big things that makes humans special when you compare them to other species, is the rate at which we progress.
Uh-oh! Ahuizotl & Caballeron!?
Unless I've missed it, I wonder if Hal's ever thought of just sending a letter to Canterlot. I'm sure there's some way to send correspondence with the leaders of Equestria, it'd be odd if there wasn't.
7910712
Without the internet to look it up, would the average person know how to direct a letter to the president?
If you were screening the president's letters and you got one from an "alien who needed help getting home", would you pass it on?
I do briefly mention this in the next chapter, probably should have thrown something about it in earlier.
7911182 Well, sending a letter to the President is a different matter, they have to care about the average citizen first
Politics aside, since (it seems anyway) Celestia's the kind to hold courts, same goes for Luna, I feel like they'd actually be interested in receiving correspondence from their constituents that can't actually make it to their courts. Though then again, this all hinges on my assumption that Equestrian leadership actually cares that much.
7911191
I'd be inclined to say that they do care, and the courts are a way to get direct access to the Equestrian leadership for the common citizen. But outside of that, ponies do have a weird mix of tech levels so it seems to me that it's plausible they haven't really modernized the government to handle newer forms of communication.
If they had, well, once you move from direct face to face, to something like letters / phone calls / emails, the numbers of correspondence you have to deal with increase by a huge factor. Which means you have to delegate and trust ponies to make sure the important stuff gets through and the rest is filtered out.
Celestia and Luna might care enough to investigate such a request, but I could easily see it getting lost in the bureaucracy that would be required to handle a system where you could just mail the princesses requests.
7911459 Fair enough, Equestrian tech does seem to be rather spastic. Their mail service is probably either somewhere between or a weird combination of the Pony Express and the first Air Mail services. And yeah, bureaucracy would definitely be a big hindrance so you've got a point there. I kinda curious whether or not it would actually be worse in Equestria than it is on Earth, since I don't think anyone on earth enjoys having to process paperwork, but on Equestria there could be ponies literally born to play with red tape.
7911647
My heart goes out to any ponies stuck with a mark like that.
I was extremely disappointed to run out of story to read. That is a good thing. This is compelling writing (don't trust my opinion with regard to anyone else's, but it's still my opinion). Other praise (words are hard).