>Books. A lot of books. That was your main source of fun in this boring world. 
>Who would have guessed really? You thought that world of magic and mystery would be really interesting, but it wasn’t, at least not for you. 
>You maybe were the Apex Predator on Earth, or at least a part of a race that was on the top of the food chain, but it didn’t give you that much of an advantage here. 
>Truly, irksome is the life of Anon the Human. 
>That being you. You are this Human. 
>And you were currently browsing a personal library of your friend, Twilight Sparkle. 
>She was a huge nerd, and circumstance somewhat forced you to become one too, so you usually tried to get any occasion to get some book for reading when her and her friends go out on another random wacky quest. 
>They would probably take you with them, if not for the fact you aren’t magical, and the reason why humans were on top of food chain, making weapons, wasn’t your forte, although to be honest, you probably had some instincts and you slowly started figuring out, how to make a some crude weapons in case of ever being attacked by some manticore or other fiend from around of here. 
>But that wasn’t important right now. You found yourself a few books to keep yourself occupied for quite some time. 


>You walked to the counter holding your books and pulled out a bag that Granny Smith made for you. Really, she was the type that you would gladly call your Grandma, or Babushka if not for the fact she wasn’t slavic, at all. She probably couldn’t even make bigos, so she wasn’t a Babushka at all really. But she was nice.
>”I’ll take these, please” you said to Twilight, who was waiting for you to pick your books. 
>”All righty, I’ll just write those down…” as she said that, she grabbed a large book with her magic, opened it and with a quill that she also held with her magic, she wrote down your name, and the title of all books you took. 
>She passed each she already noted down to a side and you packed them into your bag. When you put the last book into your bag you were quite surprised, you were pretty much sure those weighed more than when you were carrying them earlier, but you paid it no mind.
>”That will be all, thank you.” you nodded as Twilight smiled.
>”Those are all good reads you know, I bet you will have a great time reading them. I know I had!” she exclaimed happily. 
>”I bet they will serve me well when you go on your next crazy adventure and I will have no one to talk to” you said jokingly. 
>”Oh Anon, you know that I still think that you should go find more friends, trust me I was there, and it’s not healthy for you. And I bet there are a bunch of ponies that would be overjoyed to hang out with you.” she said, giving you worried look that you grew accustomed to. 



>”Yeah, I know that they would be glad and all, and I’ll try. I might try to get to talk to someone new on that Christmas party that AJ is throwing.” you said, hoping it would make Twilight somewhat calmer. 
>”You mean Hearth’s Warming Party?” she asked, cocking her eyebrow a bit.
>”Yeah, that one, sorry, I’m still getting used to all those new holidays and stuff.” you waved your hand dismissively.
>Twilight finally nodded. “That sounds like a great idea actually. I bet it will go great!” she was now beaming with a smile. 
>You chuckled a bit. “I bet so too, but for now I’ll go. See you around Twily” you waved her and headed for the exit. 
>”Have a nice day! Merry Hearth’s Warming!” she yelled after you as you exited the Library. 


>Immediately a cold air hit you like a truck and forced you to zip your jacket, since you forgot your scarf, you had to hide your neck in it, which wasn’t the easiest, but at least it wasn’t snowing. The snow was lying on the ground making walking a bit harder thought. 
>But all this cold made you wish for one thing. Tea. But where do you get a great hot tea? 
>Well Sugarcube Corner of course! So that’s where you headed. Hey, maybe you’ll even read one of your newly borrowed books. 
>Maybe you’ll order yourself a slice of cake alongside the tea? That seems like a nice afternoon to be honest. 
>You smiled as you opened the door to the Pastry Shop and a aroma of baked goods hit your nostrils. Truly wonderful establishment. 
>You approached the counter and got greeted by a friendly face of Mrs. Cake. 
>”Why hello there, what can I get you?” she was all happy and friendly. Almost made you wonder how is it possible that every store clerk, bartender, shopkeeper and whatnot managed to be so nice and happy in this world. Like they loved their jobs, and weren’t salty about having to deal with customers. 
>”A slice of cake and some good tea, please.” you said, also smiling, without realizing it at first.
>”Any specific sweetheart?” she asked. 
>”Today’s special...?” you kinda asked with hope that she will pick it for you, since you always had a problem with pinking any type of anything here. It all looked way to tasty, and was even better when eaten. 
>”Well, you can sit for now, I’ll bring it to you later.” good, it worked. You nodded and headed towards a coat rack, hanging your jacket on it. Usually, coat racks were way to short for you to hand your clothes, but Pinkie installed this one just for you, which was really sweet.


>You found yourself an empty table and picked out one of the books from your bag. 
>It was about magic, since you were quite interested about basically one of the fundamental forces of this world. 
>Nothing too advanced, but hey, maybe you’ll find a way of making yourself a spell right? 
>As soon as you started reading you felt someone staring at you. You kinda got used to it after the first month, but later it disappeared so it was quite a strange feeling to have someone stare again. 
>At first, you tried to pay no mind to it, especially since your order just arrived, but it soon was started to actually annoy you. 
>You put down your book and noticed one pale mare quickly looking down into her notebook trying to seem like she was lost in whatever she was writing. 
>You did however seem to notice that her eyes had a look of someone either really tired, or someone who hasn’t seen a light of the day for quite some time. 
>You also noticed how eerie green her eyes and magical aura were. For some reason they made a shiver go down your spine. 
>But since she was looking down, you couldn’t really do much so you just continued reading, and soon the staring stopped. 




>After finishing your tea and cake, you hid your book inside of the bag once again and got up. Took the empty cup alongside the plate and brought them to the counter again. Paid and walked to your jacket.
>When you were putting it on, you noticed that the table in which the strange mare was sitting, was currently empty.
>Of course, it wouldn’t be at all strange, if not for the fact that you didn’t really hear or see anyone leave or come in during the last ten minutes, and she was there around that time. 
>You stared at the empty table for a few seconds.
“Maybe it’s just my imagination…” you murmured to yourself, 
>Yeah, that must be it. 
>You hope so. 
>But just to be sure, you touched your forehead, but it didn’t feel any different. 
>Finally you said your goodbyes and left the bakery. 


>It probably wasn’t anything special anyway, it’s not like you were ever vigilant watcher, or something, you probably just didn’t notice and freaked out for no reason. It was dumb to think that it would be anything more. It’s not a movie or an anime. 
>Well, for now you just headed towards your house, listening into crunch of snow under your boots. 
>Ever since you landed here, you didn’t really have a way to listen to your music while walking. It would be quite a loss to don’t have any songs, but lucky you, Twilight somehow managed to translate all the songs you had on your phone to cassettes, so you could listen to them at your house. 
>But to be honest, it wasn’t all that bad here, you had no real reason to block the sounds, no cars, no annoying people, and everyone here was really nice. 
>Of course, you still sometimes wanted, since you liked listening to music, and sometimes you still wanted to somehow dodge the talk with people, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that bad. 
>But your thoughts about music were stopped right there, since you just reached your house. 



>As you grabbed your keyes and started opening doors, you felt chills go down your spine again. 
>You quickly spun around and looked around, but you really didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. You lived more around the edges of Ponyville, so there weren't many ponies here. 
>Was it paranoia? Were you going crazy?
>No, it’s probably just being tired. Or a cold. You just feel a bit weaker than usual. You bet a nice long sleep will help you with that. 
>You turned around and finished opening your doors before going inside and locking them behind you. 
>It wasn’t anything impressive or anything. Your furniture was either old, or plain. Except the rocking chair which was a gift from Twilight when you got yourself your own house. She said that it’s great for reading in it, and it was pretty much made for your human butt. 
>You took off your jacket and hung it on a coat hanger and put it closer to your fireplace. You had to start a fire if you wanted to be warm for the night.
>Fireplaces were a thing that always just made you curious. Lamps were magical, they worked pretty much the same as back in your old world, but still there was no magical central heating. Or maybe it was too expensive to set up in most houses? You never actually were in a villa or something like that.
>You quickly stopped thinking about that and began setting up a fireplace, some wood, kindling, a tad bit of paper, and fire was up. 
>You would much rather use coal than wood, but this fireplace wasn’t really built for that kind of fuel.


>With fire slowly starting, you walked to the kitchen to grab yourself something to eat, and looked at the clock. 
>It wasn’t really late, so going to sleep didn’t seem like an reliable option. 
>You could always do some reading, but you kinda wanted to try out something new, and even got a book about it. Knitting. Why? 
>Because of your Babushka. Not Granny Smith, your real Babushka. She was knitting all the time, and made you a bunch of scarfs and hats. 
>Also because computers are way to expensive in this world, and you decided that having some sort of hobby, even if dumb, or old fashioned, is way better than sulking in your house all day. 
>Thus you could hit two birds with one stone. Honor your Babushka memory, and have a hobby. Who knows, maybe you’re a natural in it?
>Finishing your sandwich, you washed your hands and walked towards your table, on which you put your bag and took out the books. But something wasn’t right.
>There was one book too much. It had black cover, with weird symbols all over it. After opening it, there were much more weird symbols, which made you think it was about magic. 
>You must’ve taken it by accident, but you didn’t really feel like going back to give it back today, so you decided to do this tomorrow. Especially since you just started a fire and you had to keep it going.
> For now, you just left the strange book on the table and grabbed the book about knitting. Alongside all the knitting needles and yarn and opened it at the first page. 
>”Wait… Did I buy yarn in this shade of green?” you asked yourself before shrugging and getting to work. 




>You must’ve dozed off when reading your book because it was already morning.
>Somehow though it wasn’t as cold as you feared it would be, perhaps you still remembered to add more wood to the fire even when half asleep.
>Sleeping in a chair wasn’t the most wise decision and now you can feel it’s effects.
>Each small move in trying to get up caused a pop in your back.
>With a groan you got up and let out a long yawn.
>You needed some warm tea, then something to eat and you could try to knit something. A scarf maybe.
>Before that however, you stretched and moaned feeling your back and joints pop.
>After setting up your water to boil you started humming to yourself.
>The Christmas… or whatever the pony version of it was called, party.
>You know that the Apple family will be there and the elements. Probably also some other ponies.
>There’s no way you could afford a present for each one of them but it still would feel wrong to not give them anything.
>You decided to prepare a new fire, since you still had some time before water would boil. 
>Your eyes wandered around the main room of your house.
>Knitting seemed improbable, you didn’t even know how many ponies would be there.
>Magic won’t help you, you couldn’t cast any spells, you tried.
>So what should you do…
>Your eyes finally stopped on one book you kinda forgot about.
>One of the only possessions from your old life.
>You practically jumped up from your chair and dashed to it.
“Nowa Kuchnia Śląska” [spoiler] New Silesian Cuisine[/spoiler] you said out loud in the ancient tongue of Polans. A cookbook from your home country.
>You flipped the pages. and there it was.
>Page seventy under clean soups. Barszcz. Traditional christmas soup. That was perfect. It was one of the soups you could just drink, but you’d need a big pot for that. Preferably one that would keep it warm.
>Maybe Pinkie has something like that?


>You had still some time, but you first needed to find a way to substitute chicken stock with something else.
>You were probably looking much happier than usual, because a lot of ponies seemed to smile towards you and you smiled back.
>While you still sometimes had that weird feeling that someone was looking at you, even when you were alone, you paid it no mind. Your cooking escapade consumed most of your mind.
>It didn’t stop you from your knitting training, you even managed to use that weird green colour and some white to make a scarf.
>But, tomorrow was supposed to be the day of Hearth’s Warming. 
>You entered the sugar cube.
>”Hiyaa Nonny!” you barely passed a doorstep and Pinkie Pie was already waving.
>You approached her with a smile.
“Hey Pinkie. You probably know what I’m here for”. 
>She nodded happily and beckoned you to follow her.
>”You’ll owe me one for that thought. Do you feel like telling me what you’re makin’ Nonny?” she asked, sliding towards you a small cart with a pot on top of it. 
>You just shook your head.
“You’ll see tomorrow. I still have to make it. It will keep it warm, yes?”
>”Yep yep! It’s a special pot, made for such things ya know.” she smiled at you.
“Thanks Pinkie, you’re the best.” you ruffled her mane a bit. Ponies seemed to enjoy that.
>”I know! But now I gotta go back to work. And you should get cookin’! Move! One, two, one, two!” she almost pushed you out of the doors. It was hard to know what Pinkie had on her mind, but you decided to ignore it for now. You had a lot of cooking before you.



>Before you even knew it, it was tomorrow evening and you were carrying a big pot full of Borsh towards the Sweet Apple Acres. Snow was falling, wind was howling and the big pot kept you warm. 
>You loved snow, it was great! This weather made you even more happy. You hoped ponies would at least want to taste your weird crimson mixture. Just like Babushka used to make. Without a broth though. 
>Who’d have guessed that knocking would be the hardest part of entering though? With both hands holding the pot, you had to somehow bend a bit, rest it on your thigh and then gingerly knock with one of your hands. 
>”Commin’!” a squeaky voice answered. Soon enough the doors opened and in front of you, stood the Little Apple Bloom. “Woah! Howdy Mr. Anon! What’s that?” she pointed towards the pot.
“A heavy pot of something I made for y’all.” you answered. 
>She seemed to catch your drift and let you in. 
>After getting in you put a pot on the ground. 
>”I’ll go tell Granny that you came!” she said happily and rushed somewhere. 
>You took off your jacket and changed your heavy boots to slippers that you brought with yourself. 
>Then you took the pot and walked towards the living room.
“Hi there!”
>Mane Six was already there. Same goes for Cutie Mark Crusaders. 
>”Hiyaa Nonny! That’s my pot! What’s innit?” Pinkie jumped towards you and looking at the big pot. 
>You just smiled.
“I know that you guys said I don’t have to buy you any presents or anything, but it would feel weird for me so I decided to make some Borsh so you all can try it. It’s a Christmas tradition to eat it and it’s from the recipe my Grandmother and mother used. You can just drink it from a mug if you want” with that, you put the pot on one of the side tables.


>”That’s so sweet of you Anon” said Rarity with a smile. 
“Oh! Just watch out, it’s red and very hard to wash off if from anything. So don’t spill it.” 
>”Y’all better wait with that though. Granny’s also makin’ tons of food so you better have some room for it.” said Applejack. 
>”I’d still love to try it.” an unknown voice spoke from behind you. 
>To your surprise it belonged to a mare that you saw a few times already, usually staring at you. White fur and light brown mane, green eyes. Now you could also notice that she has pretty big bags under her eyes. But she did smile. Though awkwardly. 
“Sure thing, just watch out with it. Like I said, it stains.” you smiled at her. She used her horn to grab one of the mugs and a ladle to pour some of the deep crimson soup into a mug. 
>You noticed most other ponies in the room looked at the mare, waiting for her opinion. 
>She didn’t really seem comfortable with all that attention but she took a small sip. Then a bigger sip, and a few more.
>”Oh my. It’s… lovely!” she smiled at you. 
>You chuckled at passed her a napkin. 
“Some of it left on your lip though.” 
>She quickly grabbed it with her magic and wiped it away. 
>”I was about to introduce you both by the way! Anon, that’s Gloomy Wisp. Wisp, that’s Anon!” Twilight said, coming closer and pouring some of the soup for herself. 
>”Y-yeah. I’ve seen you around the town a few times.” said Wisp with a small smile. 
>”It’s hard to miss him.” Rainbow also flew closer and waited for Twilight to pour her some of your soup. “He’s a big guy!”
“For you.” you said putting on a silly voice to mimic Bane. 
>”Yeah. That too. But well… I newer saw anything like you.” 
>You shrugged.
“Well, there isn’t anything like me around.”
>You were about to say something but you heard Granny Smith yelling that it’s time for you Whippersnappers to get ready for the dinner. 


>Anon… Yes he indeed is a Big Guy. 
>It’s annoying though how close this blue pegasus is to him. 
>Your jade green aura grabbed the mug and you drank a bit more. 
>What a wonderful stallion he is. So alien, so strange, and can cook. 
>You won’t let her get to him first. 
>Glaring daggers at her won’t help you, just keep calm for now. It’s not like they are dating or anything.
>Even if she’s currently touching him so freely. 
>Think Wisp… Think… How can you get rid of her.
>You look into the mug.
“Of course…” you murmur.
>”What’s that darling?” Rarity asked looking at you with a smile.
>You open your eyes wider.
“Oh… Nothing, I just finally realized that it’s a beetroot soup.” you smiled gingerly at her.
>She just chuckled sweetly.
>”Yes, I was also wondering that myself. I didn’t knew Anon was such a good cook. He never told anyone about that at least. But come now darling, let’s sit.” good for you Rarity. You complimented him. You’re lucky. 
>For now you just sat at the table and tried to enjoy the evening. Even if that blue bird brain was sitting so close to Anon.