"So, let me get this straight. You went to fetch your sister's donuts from this shop, only to come back and find out that the place where u live in, now has a gigantic purple bubble surrounding it. Yes?" Mike asked, his face showing that he had trouble catching up with what I said. I nodded and we proceeded to walk silently towards our destination.

We were walking for quite some time now. Both me and him exchanged info about where we lived, where we came from, our hobbies, favorite food and other things. I'm quite surprised that the human race (That's what his species is called apparently) is quite technologically advanced. I was even more surprised when he said that his world didn't have any sort of magic, only tricks and illusions. No fireballs being thrown about, no teleportation, no mind reading spells (Although, he did say that some of the ponies from his world do, in fact, have this mind reading ability. But he also said it was probably a hoax ), nothing of those sorts.

It was quite cool to know that he and I have some things in common. Like having quite a sweet tooth and being a gamer. (I actually thought of introducing him to Princess Luna. She does have a reputation for being a really good gamer)

I decided to break the silence with a question. "So, do the ponies from your world know what their talents are?"

"What do you mean?" he countered with a question of his own.

"Do you have cutie marks?" I asked him once again, now being a bit more to the point.

"A...cutie mark? What is that?" he asked, stopping to face me with a curious face.

I stopped walking. "Well.....how do I explain it....." I contemplated for a while. I then decided it was best for me to drop this for a while, until we reached Zecora's hut. "Nevermind about that. I'll explain it to you when we reach Zecora's hut" I told him.

He just stared at me for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. We both continued to walk in silence once again.

We finally reached our destination, a slightly decayed tree with some pots surrounding the door to the inside.

"Zecora! Are you there! It's me Barb!" I yelled out loud, hoping she would hear me. After a moment, I heard a soft 'Ooof' and some hoofsteps.

Then the door opened, revealing a Zebra with a black mane, wearing a dress that was made of, what appeared to me, cloth and fabric. The Zebra then grinned.

"Ah! Welcome Barbara to my humble abode! Please, bring your friend along and make yourself at home" she said, not even asking who or what the creature beside me was doing.

"Come on Mike" I motioned him to follow, which he reluctantly did so.

As we went inside, we were assaulted by a strong fragrance. I smiled when I smelled the aroma that was flowing throughout the entire room. "Wow. That smells wonderful Zecora. What is this strong aroma?" I asked.

Over in the next room, I could hear some utensils cluttering about and cups being placed. "Ah, I see you have noticed this strong aroma. It comes from a particular type of flora and fauna" I heard a voice reply. I sat down on the nearby couch, voiced out Mike's name and motioned him to sit down next to me. He seemed to be particularly interested in Zecora's miniature wooden sculptures, whom she hard carved herself. He took one of the many sculptures and sat down next to me, putting his bag down on the floor and proceeded to inspect the work of art.

"I see you are interested in one my works. Being talented in carving is a nifty perk" I heard Zecora say. I looked around to see that she was carrying a tray with three cups and a teapot which, I assumed, was filled with her famous tea brew. She placed down the tray on the small table that was in front of us, taking one of the cups, pouring herself a cup full of tea before proceeding to sit on one of the other chairs that was nearby.

"I say! I have never seen anything like this before. The carving of this must have taken quite some time" Mike said, looking up to face Zecora.

Zecora giggle before saying that she did not. Apparently it only took her about 2 hours to complete, which was amazing. She took a sip from her cup before asking, "So please do tell me what creature you are? I have never seen anything like your from my journey's near and far"

Mike then told her about who he is and what he is. Zecora was listening the whole time, silently taking in the new information that was being given to her.

"Now may I ask, how did you arrive to this world? I really want to know, even though my mind is in a whirl" she said, a small blush appearing.

"It's fine Zecora. My mind would probably blow up when I find out about weird things like this. Anyways, as how I got here. I was actually heading my way towards the woods that was nearby my home. I wanted to study on the life of some plants and animals there". As soon as I heard this, my first thought was....

'Another egghead'. I groaned in displeasure before telling Mike to continue.

"O....k. Anyways, I packed the things I needed. My computer and mouse,my portable wifi router for my computer, a couple of notepads, writing and coloring materials, my phone and headset and some snack, just in case if I won't come back after lunch. Then with done, I went to the woods" He told us, taking a sip at the tea that was given.

He then continued, "I proceeded with my research, only to come to a half when I noticed some sort of lizard thing. It was very tall and had odd colors, red for its tail, brown for the lower section of its body, grey for the upper section of its body and had different animal ligaments"

My eyes widened. "What what!?" I yelled out loud, causing everypony to flinch in surprise. "Oh no" I whispered to myself. It couldn't possibly be her. But why..? Why would she do that?

"Is....something wrong?" Mike asked in a soothing voice. I looked towards him and saw that he looked very worried.

I realized that I was freaking out a tad bit too much and calmed down. I told everypony in the room to not be so worried and motioned Mike to continue. He sighed before continuing with his story.

"Right......Anyways, I thought that I was hallucinating. Seeing a creature that was almost 2 heads taller than me is really frightening. Then I heard it speak for the first time, saying about how something didn't work out as what it intended. I also heard that it wanted to cheer up someone or something. I quickly hid behind a bush, making sure that I didn't make a lot of noise. When I peeked my head towards where I saw the creature, it was already gone. Utterly confused, I looked around to check where it went but it didn't leave any trail" He took a small sip from his drink before continuing. "Unfortunately, it found me instead. I felt a hand on my should and heard it say 'You'll do' and before I even had a chance to see its face, I blacked out. When I woke up, I found myself in this odd forest place.

'What does he mean by 'You'll do' ? I thought. He must be up to something, I can feel it.

"Now that that's out of the way, didn't you say that you needed to get something from Zecora? Eh Barb?" I heard Mike asking me. It took me a moment to realize that I forgot to ask Zecora about the leaves that Twilight mention.

I placed my drink down on the tray before asking Zecora about the leaves that Twilight wanted, to which she nodded and replying that she didn't forget. She magically pulled out a small pouch from her back and gave it to me, leaving me mystified for a second. I thanked her for her hospitality before leaving the hut with Mike, a new objective in mind.

Author's Note

Making up rhymes for Zecora is hard. Oh and yes, Discord will be introduced to this story. It's up to your imagination to think whether he will be good, or bad.
(Spoiler Alert: He isn't evil. He will still be an asshole, but he isn't using his powers to take over the world or anything like that)

Besides that, I hope you all enjoyed this. This chapter is more of a filler in a sense. There isn't much funnies, spooks or action yet. All of those will happen once Mike enters Ponyville, which would be in the next chapter. See you next time!