Friendship: the Gathering

by Arcanum -Phantasy

Prologue

Anon groaned, muttering a few curses under his breath as he shut off his phone's alarm. With a quick flick of his finger across the device's screen, peace reclaimed the dimly lit room as he plopped it back onto its charging pad on his bed's headboard. Groggy, he dragged himself into a sitting position, grimacing while looking dumbly around his room. Like always, the small room was sparsely decorated, a bed, unassuming dresser, computer desk complete with computer, and poll lamp the only furniture to be seen. Dirty laundry and empty water bottles covered the floor to an embarrassing degree.

Anon grimaced at the sight, taking a mental note to dispose of the rubbish at some point. Letting out a sigh, he pulled himself out of bed, his toned green body bare save for a pair of gray boxers. He yawned, rubbing his gray eyes and brushing his long, wavy, brown locks out of his face.

Slowly waking up, he staggered to his feet as he made his way towards his bedroom door. At the same time, he mentally mulled over his plans for the morning. The same thing he had done several days before and planned to do the next few days in the future.

Step one, shower. Step two, get dressed. Step three, feed Jinx. Step four, coffee. Step five, head to work. Step six, profit.

He snorted tiredly at that last part as he gathered what he needed from his dresser on the way out of the room. In contrast to his brown cave of a bedroom, the rest of his home was a bit more vibrant. In addition to the bedroom, the one-story house had a living room, guest room, kitchen, dinning room, bathroom, garage/gym, and study, each twice to three times the size of where he chose to sleep. Rich green walls made up the house, each room decorated with at least one portrait of some form of nature. Sturdy wooden furniture filled each room, each holding a kind of fae-like aesthetic.

The sudden shift in tone brought a small smile to his face, the smell of pine air-freshener greeting him as his bedroom door closed behind him. He hummed a small tune to himself, his deep tone echoing faintly in the otherwise empty house. He let his mind wander in random directions as he entered the bathroom, an unfortunate feature he had mostly made peace with. When he eventually dropped his drawers and stood under the water, he managed to shake away the sleepy cobwebs from his mind. A few minutes later, he emerged from the bathroom wearing a brown T-shirt, faded green jeans, and tan tennis shoes. His hair was a damp mop, but a much less messy one after passing a brush through it.

Feeling refreshed, he made his way to his kitchen towards his fridge.

He paused just short of opening the appliance with a snort when a loud mew caught his attention. Smirking, he turned towards his kitchen's island just in time to see a jet-black maine coon cat hop onto it from the opposite side. Chuckling, Anon pulled out two pop-top cans of wet cat food and a small plate out of a kitchen cabinet, ignoring the yellow eyes drilling into his back while he prepared their owner's breakfast. Rolling his eyes, he put the plate down in front of the cat.

"Good morning to you too, Jinx," he smiled, lightly scratching the cat's head as it ate.

Without saying anything else, he pulled a gallon of milk out of the fridge before doing the same with a container of instant coffee and a resealable bag of sugar from a cabinet. After putting a mug of milk into the microwave for a couple minutes, he went to work turning it into a mug of coffee and walked over to the dinning room. While he sat at the table enjoying his drink, his eyes wandered towards a small purple plastic deck box on the table.

Smiling, he set his mug down and opened the box.

He was instantly greeted by a ninety nine stack of cards with a single one separated from the rest by a plastic purple divider. He casually pulled the stack out of the box, giving the solitary remaining card a proud smile before giving the stack his full attention. Each card was sealed with individual card sleeves, the front clear while the back was a sold shade of purple similar to the container that housed them. With practiced ease, he shuffled the cards then drew himself a seven-card hand. The art and meaning behind the cards before him filled him with ease, the fierce beasts and magical implements briefly taking him away from his mundane life. As he placed cards on the table and made plays, he wasn't some freelance contractor killing himself just to make a buck. He was a great druid calling beasts to his side fighting against other skilled mystics.

Just as he managed to land the killing blow against his imagined opponent, a loud series of knocks erupted from his front door. After getting his heart to beat properly, he aimed a sharp glare in the door's general direction. Who the hell could that possibly be? All of his neighbors knew better than to bother him on his days off and he wasn't exactly on speaking terms with most of his family.

"Am I behind on the rent again?" he mused, only to shake his head a second later in the negative. "Nah, I took care of that last week. Then who-?"

Another loud series of knocks cut off his musings, dragging a growl out of his throat as he made his way towards the door.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" he roared, quickly zeroing in on the door. "Give me a minute for fucks sake!"

When he finally reached the door, he threw it open ready to verbally rip into whoever stood on the other side. Whatever he was going to say died the second he saw what had been knocking. For the most part, the creature standing in front of him looked human, holding a full female figure wearing a pair of blue jeans, white shoes, and red T-shirt, but that was where the similarities ended. A thin coat of pink fur covered all parts of her body not covered by her clothes. She also appeared to have a fluffy cloud-like tail that was a darker shade of pink. Her head was what really held his attention, the part in question looking like a combination of human and equine with an extra curly mane that was the same shade as her tail. Her eyes were a bit larger than a human's and a bright shade of blue that shined almost as brightly as her smile.

Anon stared at the creature with wide eyes and slack jaw. All of his higher brain function started to systematically shutdown as it tried and failed to process the data it was taking in. The creature didn't seem to notice his plight, happily waving at him as he took a shaky step back.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie," the creature declared, voice high in pitch and full of excitement. "What's your name?"

Anon blinked dumbly at that, raised a hand, then let out a groan as fainted and fell to the floor. A worried frown replaced Pinkie's smile as she stared down at the downed human.

"W-Was it something I said?" she asked.

Comments

[Joe Toon]

Here I was hoping a character who came from the many worlds of Magic the Gathering (like the city of Ravnica).

[Arcanum -Phantasy]

11152504
That is an idea that I have been mulling around for a while, but the concept I have in mind for that one is a bit more serious in tone. I wanted to take a break from that for a bit between projects. As such, this story is going to be a little more laid back compared to my other works.

[Joe Toon]

11153344
Fair enough. Still, this'll be a decent read. This site needs more Magic the Gathering.