A familiar face

Usually, the day before Christmas is supposed to be a happy one, in you're case it's the exact opposite. Following an "Incident" with the local Amazon warehouse. You're parent's, along with you, decided to hit up the local Walmart in hopes of regaining the gifts that were tragically "Lost" In the mail. Silently cursing under your breath as you get into the backseat of the car with you're parent's. You gaze over at your infuriating little siblings in the seat next to you, the car pulls out of the driveway, and toward the nearest Walmart. With nothing else to do, you look up at the grey sky as you drive down the road. Not long before you left home, it had begun to rain, hard.

"Uh, it's like this every Christmas." Your mom complained.

"Well, that's reality for you," Your dad added. "The world don't always play fair." As you left your neighborhood, you keep watching the sky. Out of habit, your mind begins to wander.

"Damn, I can't wait to get home." You say to yourself, there lay your only genuine source of sanity in the world, you're laptop. Whenever it seemed like the entire world was against you, you could always just lock the door to your bedroom, sit up in your bed. And let your worries, at least for the moment, drift away. Your momentary peace and quiet was broken when your head slumped against the door window.

"Oww..." You groan, out of the corner of your eye, you catch a figure moving in the clouds above you.

"Wait, is a-"You rub your eyes, when you open them again, the shape in the clouds is gone.

"I could've sworn I saw a pegasus up there." You mumble to yourself.

"What was that?" Your mom asks.

"Nothing!" You respond instinctively.

"Next time, be more careful." You mumble to you're self. You're a brony, but haven't yet told your parents. After all, how do you explain your addiction to my little pony of all things? "Oh, hi guy's, just wanted to tell you, I have an obsession with a show about pastel colored magical horses, hope you're ok with it!" No! You'd be the laughing stock of your entire family, your siblings would most likely tease you every chance they get, and who knows how your father would would react. You know for a fact that he has a deep hatred of furries, so much so, to the point that he won't even let your siblings watch loony toons, much less my little pony! He's not a horrible father, he's just concerned with protecting his children, and being the best parent he can. Getting grounded would be the least of your concern's, he might even throw you out of the house. You shiver at the thought of it.

"Well, we're here!" Your dad say's. Stepping out of the car. You follow.

"Can we come?!" Your sibling's ask.

"No, but tell you what, I'll get you some ice cream if you behave with mom." You can see smiles blossom on their faces.

"We'll be good, we promise!" With that, you and you're father head into the Walmart, oddly empty for the evening before Christmas. Your dad hands you a list.

"Alright, you know the drill!" He say's to you, you simply nod in return. This wasn't the first time you're families counted on you to help them with something important. Grabbing a shopping cart, you head for the toys isle. Your eye catches a glace of something moving out of the corner of your eye, you swore you could have seen a hoof disappear behind a shelf. Out of paranoia, you park your cart, and round the corner, the isle is empty, with the exception of one very paranoid looking old lady. You just shrug, and walk back to your cart.

"Heh, I must be going insane, I've got to lay off the MLP." You say with a light chuckle, part of you had wished that that had been an actual pony back there, but then again, this place is crawling with security cameras. And you were more than sure that you didn't want a bunch of FBI agent's knocking on your door, much less, dragging you off to wherever you the FBI took witness's to things like that. You step into the toy isle, being sure to snatch everything on the list. On the way to the cashier, you meet up with your father, who looks to have found everything on his list as well, and, per his promise, ice cream for the little psychopaths currently harassing your mother in back in the car.

"You good?" He asks you. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Eh, it's nothing," You reply as you hand your things to the cashier, who proceeds to check them out, you help your dad load the things back into the cart, and, after thanking the cashier, walk back out the door's, and head back to the car.

"Whatca got in there?" One of you siblings asks as you walk up to the car.

"Groceries," You lie. Watching as your dad hand's your siblings ice cream cones. He turns and pulls out 2 more.

"What, you thought I'd forget you?" You take the cone from him, and slide back into the back seat. The car pulls out of the Walmart parking lot, and towards home, it's still raining, and the skies dark as ever. A bolt of lightning flashes across the sky, briefly illuminating the room.

Your car pulls back into the driveway and your family hobbles out of it, back into the house, with you staying behind to help your father bring the "Groceries" inside. Meanwhile, you're mom get's started on making dinner, lentil soup and garlic bread, your favorite. It's no Christmas fest, but you by far prefer it to turkey. Satisfied, you rush upstairs to your room. Reclining back on your bed, you pull out your laptop. The first thing you pull up is Fimfiction. Soon after wishing your friends merry Christmas, you hear your mom calling out that dinner' ready. Out of the corner of you're eye, you spot something moving outside your dark window. You walk over to it, and peak outside. As usual, there's nothing out there, except the pattering of rain against the glass. Rolling your eyes out of slight irritation, you head downstairs, and take your place at the table. You didn't talk much with you're family, just sat and ate. Your sibling's, as usual, where wondering about what present's they would wake up to, and all you could do was keep your mouth shut. As infuriating and annoying as they were, you and your parents decided to let them have their fun for a few more years. After finishing your food, your parent's, announce, as per usual on Christmas eve, to go to bed early. You and your sibling's go though your normal evening routine before going to bed. Shower, get dressed, brush teeth, go to bed.
You could hear your dad downstairs, rushing around the house, checking to make sure every single and door was locked before setting the alarm. With a sigh, you hop into bed. And before you know it, you're asleep.

Your dream's, per usual, are nothing out of the ordinary, just a chaotic amalgamation of things you had experienced over the course of the day. That was, until the dream was shattered with a loud, blinding light, you sat up in your bed in a cold sweat. Your mouth was dry, so you head back downstairs to grab a glass of water. Stepping into the dark kitchen, you glance over at the Christmas tree, dimly illuminating the room.

"Maybe I'll finally get a chance to see Santa," You say to yourself with a chuckle. As you pull down the lever on the sink to fill your glass, you hear rustling coming from the living room. Peaking over the counter. You hear something stumble, and fall. Strangely, it sounded like...hooves? You shake your head, setting down the glass of water, you reach for a broom, hefting it in your hand's, you step into the living room. Your eye's soon adjust to the dark, you scan the room with your eye's. Nothing, except, behind the couch, you can see, what looks like a pair of fuzzy ear's sticking up from behind it. You blink for a moment, then rub your eye's, they're still there.

"Uh, who's there? "You ask nervously. You hear what sounded like a sigh of relief, the ear's drop down, and out from behind the couch step's-

"Holy ####," You murmur to yourself, "This can't be real, I have to be dreaming..." Standing just 3 feet away from you, is your oc, just as you envisioned. For the moment, the both of you stand still. Finally, you decide to break the silence.

"What are you doing in my house?" You ask, still dumbfounded.

"Well, glad you asked, I just wanted to pay my favorite human a visit," They reply.

"Pardon?" You ask.

"You're the only reason I exist, it's Hearth's Warming back in Equestria, an I didn't really have anything important on my plate, so I decided to visit-"

"Wait, did you just say Equestria?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" They ask.

"N-Nothing! It's just-" You began to stumble as you realize the actual implications of what's happening.

"Do you mind, I've got to umm...go..." You turn away, and black out.

"Uh, what happened?" You ask. As you rub your eye's.

"Well, you fainted, so I caught you before you hit the ground," You hear a familiar voice say.

"Well, thanks I don't know how I would explain something like this to my parent's." You say out loud, pushing yourself to your feet, siting on the ground next to you, is your OC.

"I guess that proves that I'm real?" They ask you.

"Heh, I guess so, what now?"

"Beat's me, I didn't think I'd get this far." Your OC responds. You say the first thing that comes to your mind.

"What's it like, living in Equestria?"

"Well, let me tell you, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Every other day, some new eldritch abomination or magical tyrant is trying to enslave us, other than that, it's nice, sure, some of may neighbor's are irritating, but for the most part. It's pretty peaceful." They say with a smile.

"Alright, how do you walk on all fours?" You immediately regret saying that, but to your surprise, they respond calmly.

"Well, it might seem hard for you humans, but we're kinda... what's the word for it? Born with it, with a little help, you learn how to pretty quickly. Some, faster than others..."

"Alright, one more thing, can I visit?" Your OC blinks for a moment.

"Oh, you mean Equestria? Well, I don't see why not." everything around you goes white for a moment, when it fade's you find yourself at the peak of a snowy hill, overlooking a quaint little town that you instantly recognize, Ponyville.

"Wonderful isn't it?" You hear your OC ask, still at your side.

"Sure is-" They cut you off.

"Well, it's late, you best be getting home before your parent's find you missing. In another flash of light, you find yourself back in your living room.

"I can't thank you enough for what you just did." You tell them. They just smile, and wrap you in a big hug.

"Your welcome." They say to you.

"You ever coming back?"

"Sure, merry Christmas," They say warmly, before disappearing in a flash of light. With nothing else to do, you walk back to the kitchen, and finish grabbing that cup of water. You pause for a moment as you finish filling your cup, and look back at the Christmas tree. Next to it, is one extra present. You walk back to it, and pick it up. Examining it, it read's:

"To whom it may concern, your Equestrian counterpart."

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