Isaac, a stranded human male from another world.

Getting sucked into another world wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

You'd guess that after thinking about the concept for five minutes, but the reality of the challenges involved rarely sink in until it actually happens to you - like it did to Isaac, 24-year-old college burnout from Earth.

Though Equestria was more or less aware of humans via the magical mirror to the 'Equestria Girls' dimension, that wasn't where Isaac was from, nor how he had gotten here. In fact, how he'd been ripped out of his home dimension and brought into this one was still a mystery that even the Princesses with all their arcane knowledge couldn't solve. And if Discord was responsible you'd think he'd at least drop a hint, but no such luck. Isaac was just a victim of random magical happenstance, with no way home because the spell could not be recreated. Permanently cut off from anything and everything he had ever known and loved.

At least the people of Equestria were easy to get along with, one would hope, to help cope with the loss and mourning. Alas, not in Isaac's case.

Princess Twilight Sparkle tried her best, but the ponies of Ponyville were more weirded out by the strange alien in their midst than anything. Not enough to chase him out of town with torches and pitchforks, not enough to flee into their homes and bar the doors whenever he walked down the street, but enough so that conversations were short, he got a lot of side-eye, and after a whole month Isaac had no one that he could honestly call a friend. Even Lyra, a mare whom Isaac had been told would enjoy having an alien for company, was awkward around him once the initial curiosity wore off.

Isaac had to wonder if part of the reason was because this world of anthropomorphic ponies was almost entirely matriarchal, with 'stallions' being few and far between. If a human woman had ended up in the same situation, maybe she would have been afforded more sympathy by the rural mares in town. Or maybe it really just came down to his humanity being truly alien to these ponies - no horns, no wings, no fur, no bright pastel skin color, toes at the end of his feet instead of hooves, and absolutely no affinity for magic of any kind. Try as they might, no amount of natural kindness could easily overcome that he and the average mare had next to nothing in common.

He really tried not to hold it against them. Isaac was an empathetic person, always trying to see others' perspectives. And on that level, he couldn't blame them - no one owed him anything. But it was still hard for him to handle emotionally, especially after being so jarringly ripped from his home.

Plus, there was... the other issue.

All the mares he'd seen so far, without a single exception, were blazingly hot. They'd easily pass for supermodels back home, and some went further into feminine beauty than humans could ever naturally achieve. It was just a natural state of these anthro ponies to be attractive, something they barely noticed most of the time because it wasn't exceptional to them. But Isaac noticed. Just going outside and pony-watching made his heart race.

After a month of being blue-balled with nothing else to do, Isaac was pining for some kind of relief. Here he was, in a fantastical alternate reality filled with exotic, beautiful women, and he couldn't enjoy any of it. It was maddening, and even for a young man of extraordinary patience and understanding, it pushed the limits.

So, instead of staring and pining after mares on the street all day, Isaac had taken to going on long hikes and exploring. He'd been warned that the Everfree Forest was absolutely not safe without protection, but the limits of Ponyville were generally deemed safe enough, and had lots of variety and open land to appreciate. This hobby didn't really help his woes, but it took the edge off. Thankfully, no one in Ponyville was watching his every move and smothering him in protection - in truth, mares seemed to be relieved that he was out of sight and out of mind - though he did have to watch out for pegasi women flying overhead and looking down. Made it hard to even find self-pleasure in the open fields. All he could really do was walk around and enjoy the scenery while he sorted things out in his mind.

Today, he was exploring a field that was, from what he'd heard, right above natural gemstone caverns. Apparently Rarity and Spike came out here hunting for gems sometimes so that Rarity could bedazzle the fuck out of some dresses, but they didn't seem to be here today. He'd also heard that the caverns below were sometimes occupied by wandering Diamond Dogs, whatever those were, and that it was easy to get lost in them. So Isaac had been advised to stay on the surface and not venture into the caves at all.

But there was only so much verdant hillside Isaac could admire, and eventually his wanderlust, his drive to explore and learn and adventure, won over. A hard-hat with a magical light had been left by the entrance, so he strapped that to his head and descended into the cavern.

He'd been skeptical of the existence of a cave with beautiful cut gems in reach, but apparently he'd underestimated how magical this world was. His eyes went wide and he gasped as the light from his helmet glittered off rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and many others he probably couldn't name.

That's probably how it all happened; he wasn't watching his step.

Isaac stepped too close to the edge of a pit without realizing, and the rocks there crumbled beneath his foot. He scrambled and tried to recover, grabbing onto one of the gems in the wall for support and keep himself from falling. Unfortunately, the amber his grip landed on was too loose in the wall, cracking off once he put his full weight on it. That was it - he tumbled into the round pit on his back.

It was some kind of rounded tunnel, possibly dug out by the Diamond Dogs ages back. Not that Isaac knew that - to him, it was more like a VERY steep and bumpy slide, leading down, down, down into the earth, his headlamp only showing all the soil and rocks rushing past his head.

Just as Isaac thought he was about to hit the bottom and either die or get trapped forever, the 'slide' curved upward just in time to make him horizontal as the tunnel opened up into another chamber, sending him rocketing out and bouncing off his ass on the rocky floor.

Moments passed. Isaac wondered if he was dead. "Ow..." Nope, pain probably meant that he was still alive. Thankfully nothing broken, either.

The first thing he noticed was that the cavern chamber, wherever it was - probably somewhere deep below the surface - was lit even without the help of his headlamp. There was something glowing in the room, but... what was it?