Escaping reality… let’s face it, folks, we all do this in one way or another. If it’s not video games, it’s books; if not that, then you are staring at a T.V. But, in the end, each person in their life feels the need to get out of the rut that is the human life now and again. This was my simple thought as I was just sitting behind my computer. Not playing any games, not watching any shows through the net, just staring at a fan fiction web page.

“Is it to fill a hole? Or maybe just feel important?” I mumbled to myself.

Leaning back in my chair, I glanced over at the second monitor and looked over the windows. Weather? Not much for the next day. Skype? Well, some folks are on, but let’s face it. Who would I feel okay to bother out of the blue? Shaking my head I just sigh, combing my fingers through short red hair.

This was just another day to me, but in a way it was what I always wanted. Just moved out of my parents place into a condo. My job was steady and hell, I actually had an opportunity to finally work at the skill I had studied in college. This was the start of the dream for most single guys, right?

Then why do I feel restrained and empty? Something binding me to… nothing?

Stretching a bit, my chair rolled back and another sigh filled the room. My cursed gift was thinking and it was running away from my control again, and not in a particularly good direction.

“No!! It’s all in my-” Stopping abruptly, I looked over to the door of the small computer room and spotted a faint light flickering from down the hall. “…hmm? What’s this now?”

Tilting my head, I slowly got up and heard cracking, like glass straining and about to give way.

“Umm… hello?”

I got up and poked my head out the door to look down the hall. I could see light emanating from the dining room. Reaching back for something to defend myself with, I grabbed a replica sword and slowly pulled it out of the sheath, keeping a grip on the hard cover in my offhand without even realizing it. Being part of three fandoms had its upsides (like how anime fans loved to have replica swords around the house). This one was the reverse blade from Rurouni Kenshin. Sure it was a replica and would maybe snap on the first strike, but man. What a first hit it would be!

Slowly slipping out of the room, my eyes spot what looks like a flashlight’s beam sweep across the floor and my breath caught in my lungs. My palms were sweating from the shock of another person in my home. Thoughtlessly, I set the sheath against the wall so I could put both hands on the handle of the sword. In the dark I could not see the sheath slowly sliding down the somewhat smooth orange peel wall from where I left it.

Suddenly, it clattered loudly to the hardwood floor.

“Ggaaaa!”

Looking behind me to see the sheath on the ground, I gripped the sword, adrenalin racing through me. I grit my teeth in irritation but realized that something was a bit odd. The light was gone but there was no sound, no clatter of feet running out the front door or window… just dark and silence.

Fearing the intruder had merely turned off the light, my adrenalin-fueled hands grip the handle of the sword hard, making the bindings and wood creak slightly. Jumping around the corner and taking a preemptive slash in the dark, my battle cry clapped loudly like thunder, then faded as I looked around the dim dining room.

“Ok, so, note to self: I am, in fact, going crazy.” I whisper in a mockingly cheerful way.

After flicking the lights on and taking yet another look around the room, I couldn’t help but think to myself- Shutters are closed; door is still shut and locked; from what I can see, nothing out of place or missing.

I relaxed a little and looked around. All I could see was a paper on the floor. Stepping forward and leaning over, I picked it up and looked at it tiredly.

“Go home, paper, you are drunk. Though,” I added, frowning at the bill, “I suppose I should still pay you.”

It had been sitting on the large table in the dining room. Setting it back on the table and spinning around, I walked back to my computer in the next room over. I picked up the sword’s sheath on my way and slipped the sword in before resting it back on its stand. Taking a seat back in front of the computer, I closed the fan fiction site that was on and glanced at the second monitor. No change.

“Well, now I have a reason to getting that shotgun I’ve had my eye on.”

After rubbing my face tiredly, I started shutting down to make my way to bed. A shower and a change into some sleeping shorts was all that was needed. With nothing more than brushing his teeth the man flops onto his bed and sighs yet again.

“Why must it be only Monday?!”

-Four days later-

“That’s it? That’s was all the week had to offer?” Setting a bag of things from work down on the table, I walked into the kitchen. I continued in a mocking voice, talking to myself. “That’s the end of the fiscal year, everyone, thanks for all the hard work! Now sit around for a week and do nothing as the work orders of the New Year get worked on by the higher ups. But remember we will be mad if you look like you are not working on the nonexistent orders.”

With a grumble I pulled open the fridge and grabbed some leftovers from the night before.

“It’s not like I love to get paid to sit around in a clean room and twiddle my thumbs as I stare at the clock for ten bloody hours! Gods, it’s like they want to make us cringe.” Pulling the top off the container and sliding it into the microwave was almost an automatic motion for me.

Bachelor life at its finest, folks! Nuking the cold food and pouring a glass of sweet tea was all just another broken-record-like action to me. Day in. Day out. Nothing out of the ordinary, though. Finishing the meal, I soon found myself on the computer yet again, clicking bookmarks at a fast pace to check the sites that keep me in the loop to the current events of my fandoms.

Attack on Titan update? Knew about it.

New art on Deviant Art? Always!

Another story featured in EQD?

…

… …

… … …

Why, don’t mind if I do! I thought with a slight smile. That’s right folks, I’m a Brony! Successfully out of the parent’s house with a nice, cool job at a company that made parts for space craft. And I was a fan of a little girls’ show. Does that paint a nice stereotype for ya?

After clicking the link I glanced over the synopsis and smiled. Yet another OC falling in love with one of the princesses of Equestria, facing turmoil and hardship along the way. Played out to a degree but this was one human who just could not care about such things. Reading, among other things, was fun and I enjoyed the work put into the story to try and convey feelings to the reader. Seeing as it was once again the start of the weekend, this marked the start of yet another reading binge.

Three chapters in and there I was, holding back some tears. It was a good one if it was able to elicit such an extreme reaction from me. Nothing overdramatic, just a few solemn tears slipping down my shaved face and dripping off my chin. I sometimes hated myself for letting stories get to me like that, but, at the same time, I myself more for how I would constantly read things like it.

Reading on, I was overall feeling better than the last time a story did this to me, kind of like it was reliving a long overdue pressure. That or I’m just slowly getting used to it. That was, until I heard something that made my soul try to run right out my mouth.

Glass. Well, to be more precise, it was that same sound as before, glass straining just before it would break. A quiet, crunching, grinding sound that pierced the quiet condo I considered home. Which reminded me of that plan I had made involving a shotgun. Particularly a one KSG. It had a unique configuration that made the overall length of the gun just a little over two feet long. That and the two feed tubes gave it some fourteen shells.

Well, fifteen if you cheat one into the chamber. This was it. Time to see if this makeshift plan and a single day at the range will work. I quickly wiped the few tears from my face and turned to look back out the door. Much to my dismay, it was, in fact, back; a soft light flickering from down the hallway in the dining room.

Slowly reaching for the short home-defense shotgun, small shivers run down my spine as my fingers make contact with its cold steel. Taking a moment to loop the neck strap around my neck and under my right shoulder, I then clipped it to the firearm. I pushed away from my computer and slowly roll back my chair across the floor mat to grab one of two boxes of shells behind me, all while trying to steady my breathing and calm down a bit.

Yeeeeah, that’s just not working at all.

After loading seven slugs into one feed tube, the other with buckshot, I finished off with one more into the chamber. Quietly pulling myself from my rolling chair, I grit my teeth and made my way to the light dancing in the dining room. With my back to the wall, I slid along it like some kind of bad ninja, I flipped up the front and rear sights on the weapon’s top rail and braced the butt of the gun to my shoulder. A moment to catch my breath and be sure of what I was about to do. That was all that I needed to remember the day at the shooting range and that small amount of work was making a difference. Breathing slowed down but heart rate did not. But it at least stopped pounding in my ears.

“Don’t short stroke, that kinda jam will get ya.” I whispered almost silently, slowly. “Keep your finger off the trigger. Stand fast… gods, I hope I’m not screwed.”

Slowly inhaling, the pump gets slammed forward making that well-known ‘shotgun-being-racked’ sound.

“STAND DOWN!” was the only thing I thought to shout in a low stern voice, bringing the firearm to ready and pointing it at the light source. My eyes widened and pupils shrank as I stared at the… target?

No man stood in front of me, or even a being or animal that I knew of, but instead was what looked like a hole in the air. A shimmering pool that looked like something made of mercury floating vertically in the air with faint cracks above and below it. Lowering the firearm, tilting my head, and examining the anomaly in the dining room, I felt a slight breeze pulling me toward the hole. It was all the sign I needed to keep back about ten feet as I walked around it.

“My gods above, it’s flat from the side!” My voice shook but I continued to circle it. “I have to be asleep on my keyboard right now. There is just no way in hell this is happening. It’s just too bloody cliché.”

Looking around, up, and down, I could not help but glare all around.

“I swear if this is some bad fan fiction I’m going to walk right now!”

Here was this small floating thing breaking a hole in both my mind and in reality, about the size of a medium painting just hovering over my dining room table. After a moment, I could not help but point accusingly to the bill that was still sitting on the table.

“I blame you. Gods, if I have a heart attack I’m going to sue… someone… maybe.”

Okay, now that that was out of the way, I had to stand back and think about what was next. Do I leave this thing alone or do I poke it? Standing there and staring at it, something disturbed the mirror-like thing and changed its look. I could see a blurry image through the light. Maybe that’s what it is? A portal maybe? But if so, what is it connecting to? Or rather, where?

Inching closer, eyes squinting, I started to see more and more. But the cracks started to shift. Towards me. “Okay, that’s not- What the-!!”

One of the cracks splintered forward right toward my chest and the only thing my body could do as I was leaning toward the portal was lift up the gun in my hand to block the stray fissure. Hitting the gun a moment latter I watched as the crack in reality seamed to grab the firearm and start to tug. Quick and sudden with the same motion as a crack would spread through ceramic…but in reverse.

“nope! Nope, Nope, NOPE!!! Time to let go now!”

Fumbling around to disconnect the strap from the gun the crack pulled harder and more of its ilk arced towards me as I got closer. No other gaps hit me but instead just started to surround. Eyes starting to dart back and forth as the barrel of the weapon starts to slip into the shimmering pool. Giving up on the strap and instead trying to slip it off was the next thing to do. The KSG was now almost completely engulfed and chances of getting away dwindled. A moment later and another tug from the rift and a shoulder was the first to come into contact with the rippling rift.

“WOO~ nelly! That’s cold! That’s ice cold!” Reaching around with my free hand yielded nothing as I was pulled into the widening hole. “Well, I guess that’s it, then.” Realizing it was pointless, I just waited for the darn thing to do its bloody job. To be honest, I could feel the gun on the other side with my swallowed arm so that was kind of reassuring, in a way.

I started to chuckle “Well, maybe all those folks that we all call crazy were right all along. Guess I’m certifiably crazy… or am I? Can’t be crazy if I just up and disappear and can’t say a thing to folks, right?”

With a sigh and yet another tug from the portal, I was becoming increasingly irritated at how long this was taking.

“Okay, I’m sick of freezing! Just get this over with!”

Planting my feet right on the table, I pushed as hard as I could to propel me into the rift in the hopes of hurrying things along. Surprisingly, it was not all too different than jumping into a pool… An ICE. COLD. POOL.

It’s a strange thing, getting pulled out of one’s dimension and forced (I use the term lightly as I’m impatient) into another. At least, I think that’s what happened. The doorway looked flat but it was, in fact, about ten to thirteen feet long. On top of that, it was reminiscent of a waterslide at a waterpark or something like that. It was clear, though I couldn’t tell what I was looking at. How would one explain the view as you pass out of your home and in-between that of (as far as I knew) other worlds? It just can’t be done. Well, obviously it can.

You could say I saw lots of light and spots of dark. But, come on folks, that’s bland. What could be explained was what the feeling was like. As each limb made it through the rift at one end, I could feel strings wrapping around them and pulling them to the other end of the portal/wormhole/dimensional rift. Whatever.

Ever walk into a spider web? Kind of like that, but instead of being sticky, the threads seemed to wrap around more. More than just the physical form. It was as if I was being pulled from deep within. From my very soul. Like each part of you had to be ferried across the worldly divide that separated these realms, holding life from the lifeless gaps between. (That sounds about right… right?) Well, that and the fact that I was steadily getting pulled faster. Before I knew it, I was looking at the other “gate” and bracing for impact.

Eyes shut, I once again felt the freezing cold and gravity returning with a vengeance. Much to my horror, I did not slow down as I had expected to. Not that I should have any expectations in an insane situation like this.

“Uh-oh. Don’t throw me off a cliff or in a lake or- OOOMPH!!!” Thankfully, I was not knocked out by that slam and slide over the ground ending in a face plant. “That… sucked…” I turned my head and spit some grass out. “Yuck.”

Becoming aware of my now-pained joins, I started to realize some things. Soft grass, cool breeze, sound of nature… bet I’m outside. Rolling to my back, I sat up to look back at the portal. I was indeed outside. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I should make a game out of guessing where I am if this happens again…” I mumbled, dragging a tired hand down my face before looking back at the portal. Eyes widening, I gasped as I realized: “It’s still open!”

Struggling back to my feet, (Hey, I was sore from the ride) I made a mad dash to the rift which now, on this side, looked strangely familiar? It looked more like a tear than a hole in the air. Odd. No matter! It was shrinking and I had to make it back! Taking a flying leap at it, I quickly learned, was a futile action. With a bubble-like pop it was gone and I found myself face down again.

“That’s it? Left in a bright meadow of pastel color and calm weather?” I complained into the ground challengingly. “Hell, here I thought I was going to be tossed into some ridiculous situation.”

I need to learn to shut up.

I heard a mechanical whirring next to me, like a computer buzzing on a hot day. Slowly pulling my sorry, grass-stained face up, I could see there was what looked like an actual large computer sitting near where the portal had been, some cables draped on the ground. Moments later I could hear something behind me moving, a gasp of surprise. Shotgun still live, it was pulled back to my cheek as I spun around only to be stunned yet again.

Oddly, I kind of hoped it was a monster to shoot, but it was something I knew all too well.

About four small horses… ponies, to be exact… were looking at me. One seemed surprised but the other three looked to be angry. Glancing back over my shoulder, I could spot a dark forest. That can’t be Everfree. Letting the gun down and looking to my right, I could see a small rustic town. I suppose that makes that Ponyville? Facing forward, I slowly pulled myself up to stand and look toward the point of the gasp.

Putting things together, I now realized must be crazy. “Well, that’s what I get for jumping into a portal in my dining room, hmm? At least I can say I’m safe… I think?”

Now before any one jumps up shouting that I could not be taking this so well, think of this: do you know of anything good coming from freaking out? Me neither. Well, that and the fact that some of them looked to be of Celestia’s Royal Guard and they were pointing their spears at me. Well, I didn’t have much room to move to start with, so standing still it was!

Realizing this could be worse, I decided to start disarming. Pulling the pump release and ejecting the chambered round into my hand and stuffing that into my back pocket I let my gun dangle and raise up my hands. And faced one pony in particular. Said pony was a unicorn and one I knew all too well.

“It’s all right, Twilight, I’m not going to do anything.” I said softly, calmly. “So, please, just tell the guards to put the spears down? I don’t want any mishaps.”

Wide-eyed and a little fearful looking, I could not help but realize something was off.

“Y-you are Twilight Sparkle… r-right?”

My response was meeting with a confused horse whinny.

“Oh no, you have got to be kidding me!”

After a moment of thinking how to turn this around with no words I step forward and extended my hand as I slowly made a fist to try a hoof bump. Hell that’s all I got to try and show I’m friendly to beings I can’t talk to. But that may not have been the best idea as all the guard took a single step forward shoving the spears closer to my face and seaming to shout something but all I could hear was some loud horse vocalizations.

Stopping fast I slowly kneeled down and looked at twilight with a scared smile, still holding my fist to her hoping she would understand. All the Guards did was look back and forth from me to the unicorn and I could tell they were getting more and more uneasy as the seconds passed.

After some hesitant moves from Twilight, she smiled a bit and bumped my fist. This was a mistake for me and I just found out why. Soft bony hand getting smashed by a hoof is a terrible feeling! Recoiling back with a shout I grabbed my bashed hand in my free hand. All this fast movement and loud sound must have scared the guard.

I don’t care who tells you what, ponies are strong sons of bitches and, as if a strike to the back of my head was not the topping on this cake, the follow-through thrusting of my face back into the ground for a third time was the cherry on top. And that was it for me.

Join in with me now everyone: “K.O.!”

Author's Note

Ok so there we go. Not a English major and here I go posting a story on a whim.
First time ever!
Let the constructive criticism begin!

Editing by: Dr. Cloud Nine 1/7/16