Vinny…

The dream was weird. Walking through darkness, I couldn’t tell what was going on…

Vinny…

There was a light far into the darkness. As I drew closer, I could see some new world. It was clean. Luscious green grass, trees brimming with plump fruit, a sky so clear that it made me wonder if clouds even existed…

“Vinny!”

My eyes shot open as the dream came to a screeching halt. Pinkie sat beside my bed, a worried look on her face. As I sat up and looked around, everything seemed normal for the most part. I looked at my cell phone on the nightstand next to my bed. It was nine in the morning.

“Pinkie, it’s too early. I need my rest,” I grumbled, burying my face in the pillow. Pinkie anxiously poked at my side, trying to get my attention.

“Vinny, something’s wrong. Did Zecora pass by here last night?”

“Yeah. She threw some dust at my direction and disappeared into the wall,” I grunted, pointing at the wall by my bed. “Why?”

When I turned my head, I could see Pinkie bouncing uneasily in her spot. “Zecora’s missing. Twilight went to her house to meet her for tea and the place was empty.” Sitting up in my bed, I rubbed my face to rid of the sleepiness it contained.

“She’s probably just out doing errands. I think you’re overreacting.” Pinkie shook her head, running through the wall as she beckoned me over. Standing up, I made my way out into the hallways and noticed immediately what she was talking about. On the floor were strange symbols dug into the dirt. They circled around what looked like hoof prints in the middle. Even if I got up close, I couldn’t tell which world they were in.

“Pinkie, go down the hall a bit. I need to see something.” With a nod, Pinkie galloped down the hallway, her world slowly disappearing the farther down she went. As I expected, the hoof prints stayed, but the markings disappeared along with the forest. Four prints laid stained on the tile, sending a chill down my spine. The hallway was luckily empty, so I wiped it off with my gown before signalling Pinkie to come back.

“Zecora might be around here,” I muttered. The sound of a broom falling caught our attention. A little too convenient, if you ask me. I looked over at the door across the hall, debating on whether I should look inside or not. Pinkie gave me a little shove, trying to get me to open the door. As I reached out for the knob, Pinkie hid behind my legs, only leaving enough space to peek. I turned the knob and looked inside, my heart ready to explode.

There was no way. It couldn’t be possible…

In the corner of the janitor closet was Zecora, posed like a cornered dog.

“Stay away! Leave me be! I will not let you eat me!” Pinkie ran past me, her face relieved. She jumped at Zecora, her forelegs spread and ready for a hug, only to go right through her. I’ll be honest, I was surprised to see that happen, but not as much as Pinkie. The mare stood up and tried to poke Zecora, only to go through her like the time we first met. It couldn’t be…

As I approached the zebra, she backed herself further into the corner, her head practically touching the ground. Raising my hands, I got down on my knees to show her I meant no harm. Pinkie noticed what I was doing and ran up beside me, mimicking my actions. Zecora showed no signs of noticing Pinkie at all.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Zecora. I don’t know why, but something tells me that you somehow ended up in my world.” Zecora’s eyes grew wide as I reached out to her with one of my hands. “Pinkie can tell you that I mean no harm. I’m just as confused as you are about all of this.”

With a reluctant hoof, she touched my hand and retracted almost instantly. I forced a smile to show her that she could trust me. Again, she reached out and placed her hoof in my hand. It was cold and rather rugged. After a small shake, I let go and slowly stood up, looking around the room. Now there was only one problem.

“We have to find a way to hide her until we can get her back to your world,” I whispered to Pinkie. She nodded in agreement and poked her head outside of the wall, looking down the hallway as I turned back to the zebra. “Zecora, we need to get you out of here, but no one can see you. If they do, it’ll mean trouble.” Pinkie pulled her head back in waved her hoof.

“The coast is clear.” Opening the closet door, I looked both ways to make sure everything was fine before guiding Zecora to my room. As we entered, I looked around the room, trying to find a place to hide Zecora. My eyes wandered around the room before noticing my cell phone on nightstand. There was one person that could help.

Grabbing the phone, I dialed Kibble’s number.

“Come on, please pick up...”

“Hello?”

“Kibble! Thank God you answered. I have a huge problem.”

“Can it wait? I have my gran—”

“I’m sorry, but it can’t. There’s a pony, er, zebra in my room.”

“A zebra?”

“Yes, but it isn’t a ghost like the other ponies. It’s literally in my room.”

“...”

“Kibble?”

“I thought I was off my rocker, kid. You sure that surgery didn’t mess with your head?”

“I’m not kidding! She’s right here, standing before me. I don’t know why, but she’s here in our world! She was in my room last night spraying dust around and then I found her in a broom closet this morning.”

“...”

“Talk to me, Kibble. I need your help.”

“...I’ll be there in ten minutes. If she is there, we’ll find a way to get her out of there and hide her. I hope this ain’t some side-effect, Vinny.”

The phone beeped, signalling the end of the call. Throwing the phone on the bed, I turned back to Pinkie and Zecora.

“Any ideas, Pinkie?” Zecora glanced over to the spot I was looking at, then back to me, confusion plastered across her face.

“Is Pinkie here? I felt her presence near.” Pinkie’s jaw dropped as she jumped in front of the zebra, waving her hooves like mad.

“Zecora! I’m right here!” She started to make faces, trying to grasp Zecora’s attention. “Lookie! Bleh! Right in front of your face.”

I placed my hand on top of Pinkie’s head, stopping her short. Pinkie looked up at me with a face that could break any man’s heart. She was truly upset by that fact that Zecora couldn’t see or hear her. Taking my hand off of her, I shook my head as Pinkie sulked away towards the hallway.

“Pinkie is here, but she isn’t. You see, I have some sort of tie with the world you’re from, Zecora. I’m able to see and hear ponies, but I can’t interact with them. Pinkie and a few other ponies are the only exceptions.” Zecora looked at the ground with a guilty expression.

“My spell was meant to deal with an out of world problem, to bring balance back.” She looked around the room with deep concern. “I did not think it would send me to your world as an attack.”

Scratching my chin, I sat back down on my bed and thought about my next course of action. Zecora’s intentions were good, but she didn’t expect them to backfire like this. Having her in our world only complicated things for both of us.

Pinkie emerged from wall, her eyes wide. “Someone’s coming! Someone’s coming!” In a panic, Zecora and I looked around the room, trying to figure out a place to hide.

“Under the bed!” I exclaimed, pointing towards the bed. With a leap, Zecora dove underneath as the nurse entered the room.

“Good morning, Mr. Panem.” I faked a smile and placed my feet down on the floor in hopes of further concealing Zecora.

“Good morning to you!” If I could have punched myself right then and there, I would have. My greeting was way too enthusiastic, causing the nurse to raise an eyebrow. A grin crept onto her face as she overlooked her clipboard.

“Today’s your last day. I can see you’re excited to leave,” she cooed, marking some notes on the piece of paper. A cold sweat began to run down my face as she came closer to the bed. If she found Zecora, I don’t know what I’d do. I didn’t want to resort to attacking her, but if I had to…

“Good morni—” Kibble stopped short at the doorway, seeing the nurse with me. Marios was there as well, poking his head in the doorway. “Is this a bad time? I just wanted to talk to Vincent real quick.” The nurse looked back to me with an expression that said, “Are you sure?” I nodded, beckoning them in.

“I just need a moment alone if you don’t mind.”

“Alright,” she said, heading towards the door. “We’ll do our final tests after your visit, okay?”

“Okay,” I muttered as Kibble and Marios came into the room. Once the nurse left, I jumped from my bed and closed the door. Dropping the blinds, I looked in every nook and cranny to make sure no one was watching us.

“Alright, Zecora. You can come out.” As the zebra exited from under my bed, both Kibble and Marios’s jaws dropped. Zecora looked at them with a disgusted face, clearly not enjoying the first impression.

“Jesus Lord Almighty,” Kibble grumbled. Out of nowhere, Marios dropped to his knees and bowed down to me.

“Vinny! The prophecy is true! You are the chosen one!” Tears ran down his cheeks as he wrapped his arms around my leg. “You have begun the first step toward reaching Equestria, to our salvation. Thank you, O Great One!”

Out of disgust and a bit of hatred for the guy, I kicked him off my leg. He stood back up and wiped his eyes, a smile stretched from ear to ear across his face. I withheld a chuckle as Kibble facepalmed, clearly ashamed by his grandson’s behavior. Once I collected my thoughts, I sat down on the bed and let out an annoyed sigh.

“We can’t have her here. If anyone finds her… I don’t think Zecora would like Area 51 all that much.” Zecora looked to me with a puzzled expression. I wasn’t about to tell her about that. The last thing I needed was her knowing about humans’ tendency of running tests and cutting shit open with creatures they’ve never seen before.

“And how do you propose we get her out?” Kibble asked with a furrowed brow. Looking around the room, I could only see one way of escape.

“The window.” Pointing at Marios, I continued. “We’re on the ground floor, so Marios is going to have to take Zecora and meet you at your car.”

“And what do we tell the staff when they notice that Marios doesn’t come along with me?”

I didn’t even think of that…

“I’ll figure something out. I’ll tell them that he went to the bathroom or something,” I said with a shrug. Kibble shook his head, ultimately disappointed with my plan.

“Alright, but if we get caught, I won’t hesitate to snitch and throw the blame on you.” With a nod, I wrenched my bed sheet and laid it on top of Zecora, who was clearly perplexed by the situation. Kneeling down beside her, I laid a hand on her wither.

“Listen, these two are going to get you out of here. We’re going to take you someplace safe until we can find you a way back to your world.” Zecora nodded before following Marios over to the window. With a little bit of effort, he jumped out and grabbed Zecora as I handed her over. Marios carefully placed her on the ground, then made his way toward the lot.

“We’ll keep her in my apartment until we can figure out what to do next. Pass by when you’re out of this place,” Kibble grumbled on the way out my room. Taking a seat back on my bed, I waited for the nurse to return. Pinkie paced around the room anxiously as I tried to calm her down.

“Pinkie, she’s going to be fine. We’ll find a way to get her back home.”

“How?”

I stroked my chin, deep in thought. I hadn’t thought about that at all. To be honest, it wasn’t something that concerned me at that moment. I was more worried about getting Zecora somewhere safe and away from the human populace.

“We’ll figure something out.” Looking around the room, I noticed something missing. “Pinkie, where’s Lyra?” Pinkie looked over at the campsite in the corner before her eyes widened.

“I don’t know. She was with me when we were at Zecora’s house, but I forgot all about her when I rushed over here.”

Two mysteries in one day. I was starting to wonder whether or not I was part of a Scooby Doo gang or something at this point, what with all the problems arising out of nowhere. Before I could even suggest anything, the nurse entered the room.

“Are you ready, Mr. Panem?” Glancing at Pinkie out of the corner of my eye, I nodded and waved my hand, hoping Pinkie got the hint to leave. The nurse wrote something down in her clipboard as I got up from my bed and followed her, piquing my curiosity. Every little thing I did, this woman would write something on her paper and press it again her chest, almost like she didn’t want me to see it.

“What are you constantly writing on that clipboard?” I asked as we made our way toward the CT Scan room. The nurse glanced at her clipboard once more and then back to me.

“I’m supposed to keep an eye on your behavior. We want to make sure there aren’t any side effects from the surgery.”

“Have you noticed anything that I haven’t?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary. I just keep notes on here showing that you’re fine.”

She held out the clipboard for me to see. Along the lines were nothing but chicken scratch. From the looks of it, it was the same thing on each line, so I could only assume that she was writing down something that said I was doing fine. At least, I hoped…

As we approached the room, I took a quick peek to see if Pinkie was still following me. To my surprise, she wasn’t. Even though the mare had an attention span of gnat, she was rather obedient when she was given a request. The nurse performed her usual procedures, making sure I had nothing on me that was metallic and to inject the gadolinium. This time she gave me a Spongebob bandage before sticking her tongue out at me and heading towards the CT specialist.

The procedure was normal. I got in the machine, they took pictures of the inside of my noggin, showed me the scans and gave me my clothes back. I’ve never been so happy in all of my days to wear my own clothes. Luckily, nobody questioned where Marios had gone off to, so that bit was lifted from my shoulders. As I grabbed my valuables from my room, I couldn’t help but open up my journal. In only two weeks, so much had happened in my life. I couldn’t tell whether I was blessed or cursed.

“Ready to go, buddy?” I turned to the door to see Mr. Offa wearing a huge smirk on his face. Closing the book, I returned the smile.

“Yeah, let’s go home.”

Little did I know, my adventure was only beginning.

Author's Notes:

Zecora, I can't stand your rhyming. It sucks.
God, you piss me off. I'm not rhyming this fucking crap.