Chapter 1
Garrett Hafner was walking home from work Friday night, as his truck had a dead battery in the parking lot. Taking his usual route home, he deduced the twenty minute drive would easily take over an hour on foot. While the first ten minutes of the walk was frustrating, it turned out to be more invigorating and enjoyable than he thought.
As he was passing a certain alley that he always looked down, he spotted something out of the ordinary. "What is that?" He said to himself as he squinted his eyes to see better in the dark. There was a faint glow down past the bend of the alleyway. He walked toward it suspiciously-being slightly paranoid because of his mothers personality-as if a band of thugs were about to jump out and mug him.He stopped at the corner to gather his courage one last time.
"Okay Garrett," he said to himself. "You have to do this. What if it's a woman who is getting mugged?"
That settled it for him. Garrett knew he was a sap when it came to being the hero, that is why he had a job at the local hospital being a paramedic. So, clutching his medical equipment bag as if his life depended on it, which it may as well in this situation, he turned the corner. Then immediately shot back around the corner, breathing vigorously.
Eyes wide with a combination between shock, fear, yet still slightly speckled with a tinge of curiosity, he tried to deduce what he just saw. What he thought he saw, as he gathered up with wits a second time, was a four legged creature, which slightly resembled a pony. It had wings and, unlike a pony, which usually have certain coat colors such as white, black, brown, or gray, had a brightly blue colored coat and a multicolored mane and tail.
"Who's there? I-I'm not afraid of you!" He heard a voice, most likely female, call from around the bend.
"So," Garrett said quietly. "There is a woman over there."
He then heard the voice mumble from around the bend."Must've scared them off. Ha! I sh-showed them."
Garrett could easily hear the wavering courage and telltale signs of fear when she spoke. So, concluding that they were more scared of him than vice versa, he turned the corner again. Only to find himself unable to move. The creature he saw earlier had vanished, but since the creature was no longer occupying his attention he saw what was making the glow. What seemed like a glowing, floating, swirling pool of liquid was hovering mid air in front of him. Without realizing it he was walking towards it. Something about it was calling to him, he didn't know why, or what is even was, but he felt a need to investigate it.When he was about a foot away he stopped, reached out with his hand, and touched it.
"It feels like cold water, almost like a swimming pool." Garrett said aloud without realizing it. He knew he was going to jump through it before he even decided it himself. He started to set down his medical bag on the ground, but then reconsidered and slung it back over his shoulder.
"If I'm incapacitated and I can't reach my bag..." Garrett trailed off, shuddering at the thought of what could happen. "Three...Two...One!" He yelled, as he ran and jumped though the "water."
His mind then, without himself realizing it, took in three very big details all at once. The first thing he realized was there were no more buildings or concrete, only trees. The second thing was that he could hear talking off in the distance, but other than that everything was all quiet. The last thing he noticed, which was unfortunate for him, was that he was now ten feet off the ground, not ten inches.
As he fell those ten feet in less than a second, he realized he would have no time to brace himself. With a loud pop and an equally loud grunt, he hit the soft earth and fell over. Thanks to his medical knowledge and the sound that accompanied it he deduced his ankle had popped out of place, and with a small adjustment and a shove, along with another grunt, he popped it back into place.
"At least it wasn't broken," He said.
After applying a small wrap on his ankle for extra support and taking two small pain pills, he zipped up his medical bag and stood up. Looking up at the portal he realized it was getting smaller and smaller before disappearing completely.
"Well, what now..." Garrett mumbled to himself before realizing how utterly exhausted he was.
He shouldn't have, but curiosity had gotten the better of himself, and he started to do a small bit of scouting. Making some landmarks consisting of broken twigs and arrows, he started looking for any telltale signs of life. A half eaten berry here, a pile of excrement there. He definitely knew there was animals or some form of creature living here. And in his condition, if he got caught by some form of carnivorous predator, things would be in bad shape for him. But he continued scouting, this time in a more subtle manner. Listening for sounds, watching for rustling bushes, and other sorts of cautious behavior. Thinking he had gotten as much information that he could gather in his state of mind he started to head back to the camp.
He knew it probably wasn't the best idea, and passing out was not what he wanted, but it was his only choice. So, thanks to his childhood of watching survival shows on the military channel and the discovery channel, he huddled down at the base of a tree, in a little nook he found to make it harder for the animals to spot him. Pulled a bit of foliage over his legs and chest, and drifted into a deep sleep.
------Author's Notes------
I wrote this short chapter in my first and second periods at school, so it did not take me that long. And yes, before any people ask let me clear this up now. I am supposed to be the main character of the story, that is my actual name, and I am going into the medical field as a paramedic. One other thing I have to say is that, Rainbow Dash fans, don't get too excited. RD is not gonna be one of the main characters in my story, I just thought she was the most daring, so it would only make sense that she go through and explore the portal when she found it. She will probably be mentioned once or twice more, and may even have some speaking lines. But don't expect an entire chapter devoted to her.
Chapter 2
Garrett woke up with a sense of panic. Not knowing where he was or how he got there, he shoved the foliage off of him, and jumped up, breathing vigorously. He stopped to process what he remembered of the following night.
"Apparently," Garrett spoke aloud. "I'm in a strange place after jumping through some kind of portal. Which either transported me to another time, place, universe, world, or a wacky combination of all..."
After re-wrapping his ankle, Garrett set out to find out where he was. He would make notes with his land marks he made the previous night; a broken branch here, a certain kind of bush there, just in case he had to make his way back before nightfall. Thankfully, he never had to do such a thing, for as he passed a bend in a trail he had discovered earlier he came face to face with what looked like a zebra wearing some form of cloak.
"Whoa!" Garrett exclaimed.
The zebra, slightly startled, got into what looked like a charging stance.
"steady now," Garrett said. "I've seen enough animal planet to know where this is going."
The zebra stood up in what Garrett could have sworn was a surprised expression, which he scoffed off without a further doubt because he knew, although animals did have emotions, they could not be fully expressed in their faces.
"Strange," spoke the zebra. "You look so strange with your many appendage, yet you can speak our native language."
Garrett was completely awestruck at this sign of intelligence from a mere zebra.
"You can speak?" Garrett said, "but h-how can you speak? you're only a zebra! you are only a zebra, corr-" Garrett cut himself off. He remembered about his deduction earlier that he could be in an alternate universe, and, realizing talking animals was a lot safer that back in the Jurassic period, composed himself and tried to act civil.
"Excuse me." Garrett said as he picked his bag up off of the ground where he had dropped it in his shocked demeanor. "That may have been a bit of an..explosive reaction. Let me restart things. My name is Garrett Hafner, and you are?" He said as he held his hand out in the human sign of greeting known as a handshake, hoping she would know what to do with it.
"Well," said the zebra as she eyed his hand suspiciously. "While you do look rather strangely, you seem to have the intelligence of a pony. Why don't you visit with me at my humble abode." She said, with a slightly inquisitive look. "You can relax from your heavy load. And it looks like in food you rather lack, so you can indulge yourself in a slight snack." she had said as his stomach had let out the loudest rumble Garrett have ever heard it release. "Oh, and by the way, as to the question of my name, it is Zecora."
"Well, although I am a bit shocked by this turn of events; the likes of which I will surely explain later," Garrett replied. "I accept your offer, Zecora."
"Follow me, if you please." Zecora said, as she turned around and walked in the direction she had come from.
They both spent the rest of the ten minute walk in silence, each glancing at the other in their own suspicion. When they finally reached her "house" as she called it-although he would rather refer to it as a hut-he went inside to find nothing except for a cauldron in the center of the room, many jars containing ingredients he had never seen on the walls, a couple floor mats, and a coat rack. Zecora removed her cloak she had been wearing and placed it on the rack, then went to the arrangement of jars and started grabbing a number off the shelf.
"take a seat, while I prepare us something to eat," Zecora said.
"Okay," replied Garrett. "Thank you." Garrett then took off his bag, set it at his side, and sat down on one of the floor mats. Zecora came and placed what looked like a normal salad in front of him. Forgetting his manners, or even his safety precautions, he devoured the food as if it was his first meal in a lifetime. And to him it may as well been, the night he had traveled through the portal he had just finished a twelve hour emergency shift at the hospital after a pileup on I-74.
"Sorry for my manners, or lack thereof." Garrett said to Zecora as he finished his plate. "I haven't eaten anything in the past twenty-four hours."
Zecora just nodded, took his plate, and cleaned up.
"So," Garrett said, not without a slight sense of awkwardness in his voice."I'm pretty sure we both have many questions for each other."
And, with the silence broken, they both took turns asking questions. Of course one of the main ones asked by both were "what exactly are you?" After talking long into the night Zecora sat up, stretched, and walked over to her mat.
"You can stay here for the night," Zecora said. "Then tomorrow we will both go see Twilight."
Not knowing exactly how late it was, and taking in how exhausted he was again, he gave up the idea of asking who Twilight was, nodded his head, and laid in the most comfortable position he could muster. And for the second time, in this strange land that he had just found out was called Equestria, Garrett closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
------Author's Notes------
Took me all day to write this one, I had a bit of writers block trying to find what stuff rhymes with for Zecora, while also trying not to overdo it. I think it turned out pretty well. And for those who think "This guy is talking to zebras in such a calm manner." I am attempting to create a non-brony version of me go into this story, and my amount of reason abounds in certain areas. So I can say, if i was in his position, I most likely may have acted a bit differently but would've got to the reasoning that I got to in the story soon enough. Hope you like this chapter, the longer this story gets though, the harder it will be to write chapters. I am hoping to get to at least 10 chapters with this piece, but if it comes to about 8-9 I will be happy with that, for this is still my first fanfic.
