>You are Paradise Skies, the pegasus, and today is really going to suck. >In fact, it's going to do more than suck. >It's going to really fucking suck. >You wish that you could just stay in bed all day today, and just have everything blow over, but you know that you're just prolonging the inevitable. >You turned 18 last month, and instead of having a big birthday celebration with your friends, drinking, partying, visiting Manehattan, or some other big city for its nightlife, you did something different. >You sat alone, and ate mac and cheese in your room while browsing 4pone. >Same thing that you would any other night of the week, only this time with slightly more crying. >Ever since being a filly, you were always the more quiet and reserved type, but ever since those portals to Earth opened up when you were 13 or so, the newfound technology that the humans brought with them in the now-dubbed "Technological Revolution" made it even easier to slip away from the social pressures of day-to-day life. >Humans brought many great things to your world, but you have to say, hands down, your favourite thing of all is the internet. >Your precious safety barrier of glass, plastic, and light that separates you from the outside world. >Sounds great, right? Wrong. Oh, so very, very, very wrong. >The past week has been absolute Hell, and you're about to have your entire way of life flipped upside down. >You roll over onto your side with an "umph," and slide out of bed, landing on all four hooves. >Holy fuck, you feel like shit. >No rest for the wicked anyway, you may as well hop in the shower and get ready for your "big day." >*Hoo-frickin-ray~ >From the moment that your door opens, and you begin to walk along the hallway, your mother's voice calls out from downstairs. >"Paradise! Get your bags ready, I'll cook breakfast and then we'll have to get going." >You say nothing as you walk to the bathroom, and nudge the door open with your nose. >You tremble a little at the thought of what today is going to be like. >It'll be okay Paradise, just remember to breathe. Just breathe and it'll all go away. It'll pass. >As you shakily turn on the water faucet for your shower, you leap back with a little "yelp!" as the cold water hits your shoulders, causing you to hyperventilate a little in the corner of your bathroom. "Holy *pant* shit.. *pant*.." >While you wait for the water to warm up a little, you pick yourself up from the ground and shakily trot over to the sink. >You begin your wobbly act of clambering up onto your hind legs to brush your teeth before catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. >Yikes. That's some spooky stuff. You actually made yourself jump a little. >Staring back at you, you see a young mare with big enough bags under her tired looking brown eyes to kill lesser beings, and a messy beige coat, and unkempt messy brown mane and tail to match. >You look even shittier than usual today, fucking Hell. >You sensibly decide to resign yourself to picking up your toothbrush between your teeth and carrying it into the shower with you so you don't have to look at how much of a mess you are in the mirror. >The last thing you really need right now is to destroy what little confidence you may or may not have left. "Ahhh.." >The shower has always relaxed you. >You flutter out your wings and begin to wash yourself from head to toe as the warm water washes over you, awakening each part of your body in succession. >Feelsgoodman.jpg >Just because you don't get out too often doesn't mean you wanna smell like an unwashed jockstrap. >While standing with the water running over your fur and mane, you can't help but unwind as your mind begins to wander just a tad. >This nonsense all started about three or four weeks ago. It was a couple of days after your birthday, actually. >Your mom had approached you, and told you in no uncertain terms that you A) Either had to get a job, or go to college, or B) Move out of the house within a month. >She just doesn't get it. It's not that simple. >With you having the issues that you have, you can't exactly hold down a job, and colleges would be a major no-go area considering how well you handle that whole anxiety attack thing. >So, you being the idiot you are, you called her bluff. >She tried this same stunt when you were 16, and she made no big deal of it that time around, so it'd be the same this time, right? >Ding, ding, ding! You're a winn- Oh wait, no you weren't, because that whole thing backfired on you really fucking catastrophically. >Last week, your mom handed you a flier for a university in some Earth city called Reids.. Or Leeds.. Or something like that? >Ever since the portals opened, both humans and ponies alike decided that the best possible way to integrate into one anothers societies would be to educate the youth on both ends, as "we are the future!" Or some silly shit. >Yup, seriously. Sending a bunch of normies to high end universities and colleges (all pre-paid for, might you add) to have sex with each other, do drugs, cast black magic, and generally just act like morons is *just* what we need moving forward together as two species. >Either way, you're going to be heading there, and your initial enrollment day is one week from now, and you're absolutely shitting yourself. >You're going to be doing an "Equestrian Introduction to Earth" course, and an Equestrian-Specific computing course, which is sort of cool you guess. >Hopefully it's not too ba- >"Paradise!" "Uh.. Huh?" >You glance over to your watch that is laying on the sink beside the shower, only to notice that you've been stood in here for half an hour thinking about random shit while idly washing yourself and scrubbing your nibblers. "AH! Shit! Sorry mom! I'll not be long!" >Despite the fact that you don't really want to go anywhere, you can't really purposely try to delay this any longer. >Just think of it as ripping off a bandaid. >A year long bandaid. >With a quick scrub of your mane, tail, teeth, and butt, you're looking (and smelling) a million times better than you did when you originally woke up, so hey! That's something, you guess? >You've seriously reached the point where just getting out of bed and taking a shower is an achievement to you, Celestia help you. >You quickly run to your room after halfassedly trying to dry your mane and coat in a mix of scrubbing with a towel, and shaking yourself dry like one of those cute internet doggos. >Maybe you could get a doggo of your own on Earth, that'd be nice. >Then again, you'd have to walk it, and ehhhh... Outside.. Nope. Not quite ready for that yet you don't reckon. Let's see how traumatic university is first. >As you charge through your door, you expertly slide along the floor on your belly, and into your baggy oversized deep crimson hoodie that you have appropriately dubbed the safety shield. >Goddamn, it's so cosy. >You take one final look around your room as you pick up your glasses off of the bedside table, and head for the door. >You're going to miss this place, but you know that you have no say in the matter anymore. >The time has come. / END PART 1 \