>It was a Friday afternoon and you had just signed out from work.
>Letting out a sigh you fall back onto your bed and stare at the ceiling.
“Another week of deskwork, another weekend of just sitting around and waiting for Monday to come.”
>Bar the low hum of your fan, the house is too quiet, you’re used to it being more lively.
>You reach for your phone and open the music app in the hopes you could find something decent to kill the silence and your thoughts, only to be cut off by the ring of your doorbell.
>As you open the door you’re greeted by a delivery man standing next to a wooden box that stood at about half his height.
>“Is there a Mr. Anonymous here?”
”That’d be me.”
>He hands you an electronic clipboard and pen.
>”Sign.”
>Once you sign and return the clipboard he hands you an envelope and then walks off, leaving the box on your front porch. 
>It takes you a few tries since it was a lot heavier than it looked, but you manage to pick it up and carry it to the living room.
>With a huff you place it in the middle of the floor before sitting on the couch to catch your breath and take a look at the envelope that came with the box.
“Don’t normally get mail that isn’t bills, sure as shit don’t get many packages.”
>Opening the envelope you’re greeted by a letter:
>”Hey Anon, I just heard about what happened and I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. To make it up to you I thought I’d get you something to help you out since I know how you get when you’re left with your thoughts. I couldn’t remember which of the sisters you liked so I got you all of them. I hope it helps. From, G.”
>Your eyes widen slightly, you hadn’t heard from G in...about 2 years now. Last time you talked, he was excited about doing some charity work in a remote village in Europe or something. The two of you were friends since high school before he left.
>Something else struck you as odd though, what the hell did he mean by “couldn’t remember which of the sisters you liked so I got you all of them”?
>Setting the note on the coffee table you move to open the box, you run your hands along the top to try and find a seam to grip.
Eventually you find it and mutter “This better not be a bunch of sex dolls.” as you pull the lid of the box off.
>Almost as soon as the lid is removed the sides of the box begin to collapse outward- reflexively you snap shut your eyes and take a step backwards, after you hear them all hit the floor, you slowly open your eyes and look at where the box once stood.

>It looked like a...small horse? About the size of a dog. Reminded you of one of the characters from that show G had you watch a few seasons of, but you can’t really place which character it most resembled. Though judging from the long eyelashes and what looks like purple eyeshadow, you think it’s more than safe to say that the little pony is female. Her long mane that covered half of her face was a pale purple, perhaps more of a lilac shade, and her coat was a dull pink.
>Walking to her side she has some sort of flower on her flank, the edges of it are a pinkish red, the bulk of the petals are various shades of vivid pink, and the center was yellow.
>Moving back in front of her you’ve noticed that she hasn’t opened her eyes yet. Is she a robot, does she need to be plugged in to charge? You didn’t see any plugs or cables in the box; maybe it’s stored internally?
>You reach towards her to check but before your hand can touch her fur her eyes snap open before quickly going to a half-lidded state. Her wine red eyes looked at you with seeming disinterest.
“Hey there, little lady.” You say softly, letting your formerly outstretched hand rest on your thigh as you crouch to get eye level with her, “Name’s Anonymous, how about you?”
>She doesn’t respond, instead slowly turning her head left and right to look around the room. Maybe she can’t talk? Guess it would make sense, horses can’t talk, even if they look like ones that can.
“Since you’re going to be living here, I guess I could show you around.” You say as you stand before gesturing for her to follow you. 
>Taking a quick glance to confirm that she is you show her the guest room, your room/office, the bathroom, the kitchen, and then the back porch. You also tell her that she’s free to sleep on the couch or in the guest room if she wants.
“Got all that?” you ask.
>She looks down at her hooves for a second and then looks up at you and nods. Guess she’s smart enough to understand what you’re saying, makes things a lot easier for you.
>The two of you stand in silence for a few minutes before a loud grumble cuts through the air, you look down and find the little pink pony looking away from you, her face a little pinker than normal. Guess that answers your question on if she’s a robot.
A chuckle escapes your lips, “Makes sense you’re hungry, God knows how long you were in that box.”
>She gives a small nod as you walk towards the cupboards.
“Unfortunately I don’t have much since I only really buy enough for me.” you say, moving aside the boxes of various pasta and cans of chili, before sighing and pulling out a package of cookies. 
“Know if you can eat these?” you ask her, giving the package a little shake for emphasis.
>Craning your neck backwards to look at her, her eyes almost seem to shimmer as she looks at the confections in your hand, a bit of drool forming at the corner of her mouth.
A slight smile forms on your face as you crouch and open up the package, holding out a cookie to her “Guess that’s a yes then.”

>She snatches up the cookie right out of your hand, devouring it in under a second. Her eyes closed and her face had what looked to be an expression of bliss for a moment before they opened up again and looked at you expectantly. She eats the second as quickly as the first, followed by the third, then the fourth, and after the fifth you just leave the unwrapped package on the floor in front of her to eat from. 
>She finished the entire thing in no time, letting out a satisfied exhalation as she looked up at you with a faint smile on her muzzle. Her eyes, however, had returned to that same half-lidded state that you now assumed was her neutral expression.
>Reaching down, you start to gently run your fingers through her mane. She jumped a little at your touch but didn’t pull away, so you continue petting her for a few minutes before ending it with a few rubs behind her ear.
“It’s about time for bed, so I’m gonna get ready for that. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable wherever.”
>With a stack of neatly folded pajamas under your arm you quickly head into the bathroom and turn on the shower; allowing the hot water run over you for a while to try and beat out the chill running through your body, a familiar feeling of fear and emptiness gnawing away at your stomach. 
>Trembling hands rub shampoo into your scalp in vain attempts to rub out the thoughts beneath, thoughts of how the little pony that just came into your life could be taken out of it, grim images of everything that could go wrong painting the black canvas inside your eyelids.
>You grit your teeth- you hated this, how your mind always comes to this, to how everything could end. Telling you that everyone you know will leave you, that they will forget about you, they’ll move away, they’ll die, and you’ll be all alone again. That it will always be this way.
>Hot air fills your lungs as you suddenly inhale, for a moment you had forgotten to breathe. You take deep breaths as you wash the shampoo out of your hair, you have to regain control of yourself. Quickly finishing the rest of your wash, you step out and practically rip a towel off of the rack and begin to dry yourself off.
>As you do so you look at yourself in the mirror; your hair brushed against your shoulders, far messier than even being recently washed justified, scruffy beard begging to be combed or trimmed, and the dark circles under your eyes from all of the sleepless nights contrast starkly against your pale skin. If you still had to go into the office for your job you would have been told to get your shit together by now, but since that wasn’t the case you didn’t care enough to do anything about it.
>A defeated sigh escapes your lips as you finish drying yourself and start changing- soon enough you’ll be in bed ready to stare at the ceiling for the next few hours trying to sleep and you can focus on that instead of the possibility of your new housemate vanishing from your life out of the blue.

>Speaking of which; when you open the door to the bathroom you find her sitting just outside on her haunches, likely waiting for you to get out.
“Oh hey, were you waiting for me?”
>“Yeah.” she replies.
>Wait what?
>“If you keep making that face it’ll get stuck that way, y’know.” Her voice was a bit raspy but flat in tone.
“And why the silent treatment earlier?”
>“A wake up in a place I don’t recognize confronted by a creature I’ve never seen before reaching towards my head, I do wonder.” She says, neither her expression or tone changing.
“Fair enough. Either way you’re kinda stuck here with me, so I guess we might as well try and get along.”
>“Keep giving me those shortbreads and I might start to like you.”
You start to chuckle before being cut off by a yawn, “I’ll have to keep that in mind when I go to the store and pick up some more food, have someone to feed that isn’t me now after all.”
>“I’ll be sure to hold you to it.” a faint smile forms on her face this time.
“So where are you planning on sleeping? The guest bed and the couch are open.” you ask her, stretching as you do.
>“I was thinking yours.” she replies flatly as she trots towards your room, hooves clip-clopping against wood before she crosses the threshold into your sanctum and onto the tile that makes up it’s floor. She makes her way over to the left side of the bed and quickly hoists herself up and onto it due to your frame being low to the ground; the slats creak slightly under the unfamiliar weight but quiet as she settles onto her side, facing the doorway to look you in the eye before burrowing her snout into the pillow with a sigh of mock contentment. 

>Another sigh escapes you as you pinch the bridge of your nose before you decide to just turn the lights off; you climb under the blanket on the right side and lay on your back, hands folded on your chest. She had rolled over to lay on her left side to face away from you. You were just about ready to begin your nightly ritual of staring at the ceiling until sleep finally takes you until a thought crosses your mind.
“Hey, the letter said you were supposed to come with your sisters, where are they?”
>“Don’t have any sisters, parents only had me.” Her tone wasn’t flat this time, it seemed more natural.
“That’s odd- guess I’m getting less than what my friend ordered, not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth though.”
>A sound of disgust comes from the left side of the bed in response to your pun, causing you to chuckle.
>“That was awful.” she says.
“There’s plenty more where that came from so you better prepare yourself.”
>She fake shudders, “Then I shall live in a constant state of fear.”
Silence fills the room for a bit and you fidget as you notice the dull hum of your ceiling fan, “You still haven’t told me your name.”
>“Rosie Rock, though back home they just called me Rosie.”
>Her voice shakes on the latter half of the statement; briefly you wondered what it meant before you feel the bed shake gently, combined with the sound of sniffling and quiet sobbing coming from your left side.
>You roll onto your side and pull Rosie closer with your right arm until her head is against your chest, tears now soaking into your pajama shirt. You run your hand across the back of her mane as she starts bawling, you can take a guess at what’s going through her head and how she feels right now- it’s probably a lot like what often goes through yours. Alone and afraid, wanting someone, anyone, to connect to. She probably misses her friends and family, and while you can’t be family, you can try to be the friend she needs, the one that you yourself needed so many times throughout your life.
>At some point she had fallen asleep while you were in your thoughts. Her chest rising and falling slowly, your shirt slightly rustling whenever she exhaled.
You wrap your arm around her a little tighter, and whisper “Welcome home, Rosie.” before closing your eyes, and for the first time in a long while, quickly falling asleep.