In The Presence of Enemies

"Good morning!"

Jordan sat up and tried to open his eyes, only to be blinded by the brilliant sunlight, closing them again. It felt for some reason like he was sitting on grass and not a mattress. He was also outside, which is not how he remembered sleeping last night.

The happy voice asked "What is your full name?"

"Uh, Jordan. Jordan Green."

There was the sound of a pencil scratching against paper, muffled slightly by the breeze.

"What date do you remember last?"

Jordan wasn't sure how to respond to that. Even if he were properly awake instead of still half asleep, he'd still be a little confused. It took a moment to remember, but Jordan responded.

"August 23rd of 2011."

"Your country and/or state of most recent residence?"

At that, Jordan was annoyed. "What kind of ques-"

Any train of thought he could possibly have had was cut off when he opened his eyes. There were not one, but two things in front of him that fit perfectly on the list of "stuff Jordan does not expect to see when he wakes up". One was a lime green unicorn, probably female by her voice, suspending a clipboard and pencil in front of her in a yellow glow. The other was a red-headed human female who looked to be in her twenties, in a military uniform with a scoped rifle sitting comfortably in her hands. This was a little alarming, but the rifle was pointed at the ground, and though he didn't notice it, her finger was off the trigger, and he did see that both of them were smiling.

"Your country and/or state of most recent residence?"

Jordan blinked repeatedly and shook his head in an attempt to clear the cobwebs from his head. "United States of America. Colorado, specifically." he added.

"Thank you. One last question. How many days are in a year?"

Something about the unicorn's friendliness and the woman's firearm dissuaded any snarky replies he was considering.

"Three hundred and sixty five. Unless it's a leap year, then there's an extra one."

The unicorn smiled more, and the human stepped forward and extended her hand down to him.

"Welcome to Equestria, Jordan. My name is Sarah Raleigh, and this is Lyra Heartstrings."

Jordan shook hands with Sarah, then her hand shifted into a firmer grip, and he accepted her help in pulling him up.

Jordan looked from Sarah down to Lyra. "Equestria? Unicorns? ... Magic?"

Lyra replied "Unicorns. And pegasi. And earth ponies. And all sorts of other mythical creatures."

"Ah."

After a moment of silence, Sarah pointed off into the distance, where Jordan saw a town. "Well, come on then! You've got a lot of stuff to do before you're a proper legal citizen."

Sarah and Lyra walked off, and Jordan followed. "How did I get here?"

Lyra looked back. "Nopony knows. One day, humans just started appearing. The early months were chaotic, but we've pretty much got a system down now, even for predicting when and where the next one will most likely be, which is how we found you."

"How many of us are there?"

"Almost a thousand."

"Wow."

The trio continued their walk for a few minutes.

"So, uh, Sarah, why do you have a gun?"

"I am a soldier of Hay Company. Lyra and I are the primary retrieval team."

"Okay. ... What's Hay Company?"