It was a bright sunny Friday afternoon in April, and the campus buzzed with activity. Students were out in the court yards playing Frisbee and volleyball, others were out jogging or walking dogs. Unfortunately for Jean and Max, they were stuck in a calculus class, being lectured by their less-than-interesting professor about liner equations. Jean could barely keep his eyes open as their teacher droned on. He glanced at the clock, their lecture was only halfway over.

"So boring…" he thought

He desperately wanted to be outside to enjoy the warm weather. He suddenly felt his phone go off. It was a text message from Max which read:

"yo im bored as hell… wanna ditch this class?"

He looked across the classroom and saw his friend looking back at him with a pleading expression across his face. Jean nodded then sent a text back which read:

"OHGODYES. You first"

Upon receiving his text, a sly grin came across Max's face. He waited until the professor was facing the chalkboard, then slipped out the door, unseen. Jean waited a minute to avoid drawing attention, then slipped out in a similar manner. Jean wasn't the type to cut class, but the weather was too nice to spend inside. The two of them exited the lecture hall into the warm spring air outside. Jean took a deep breath and said

"It is so good to be out of there! Dr. Sutton sure likes to hear himself talk"

"For real, I doubt anyone in that class was even paying attention" Max said, stretching .

"It should be a crime to hold class on Friday when the weather is so nice" Jean said and cracked his back.

"Well said" His friend replied

"So, now what?" Jean asked

"Let's go drop our stuff off at the dorm, then lets hit the dining hall" Max suggested

"Good deal"

The two of them began the walk across campus to their dorm buildings, Jean stopped at a vending machine and bought an energy drink and stashed it in his backpack. Max shook his head and said: "those high-caffeine drinks will kill you some day, ya know?"

"whatever you say, health-nut" Jean mocked.

They neared a park "Lets take the scenic route back" Jean said pointing to a small section of woods

"Why not?" Max said

The two continued their walk, enjoying the warm spring air. Max rubbed his chin as a thought occurred, "You and me need to go on a road trip this weekend, like an adventure."

"yeah!" Jean agreed. "Where did you have in mind?" He asked.

"I don't know yet, but we really need to get off this boring campus." Max declared.

As the two pondered on where to go, a strange shape off the path caught Max's eye. He stopped and looked at the peculiar object, Jean noticed it to. The object, was a blue sphere of light, hovering three feet off the ground and made crackling noises of electricity.

"Whoa… Call up God, we should report this error" Max joked.

"Don't be a smartass, I think we just found something big…. Like a new scientific discovery or something" Jean said taking in the marvel.

Jean began taking pictures with his phone "One for Popular Science magazine" He said and turned his phone sideways for another shot "One for National Geographic". As Jean snapped pictures, Max walked closer, Jean looked up.

"What are you doing?! We don't know what that thing is, keep away from it!" Jean barked at his friend who was getting closer to the strange, unearthly object.

"Relax man, where's your sense of adventure?" Max teased, and got even closer to the floating ball of light.

"Sense of adventure? Where's your sense of self-preservation?!" Jean advised, then pointed at the orb of light. "that thing is probably giving you a huge dose of radiation!"

Max fearlessly walked right up the globe of energy, then outstretched his arm as if he was about to touch it.

"Max, if you see an anomaly in physics, you shouldn't touch it!" Jean warned

"Would you calm down! This thing looks harmless!" Max said, annoyed with his friend's warnings, then reached out and touched the ball of light. Max froze, petrified by an unseen, bizarre force of energy. Max's body then began to emit a blue light, similar the orb. Jean stared at his friend , dumbfounded.

"Max?... Max are you Ok?" Jean asked nervously, Max didn't respond. Jean cautiously advanced toward Max and the orb of light.

"Max! Answer me!" he said, then grabbed his friend by the shoulder in attempts to get him to snap out of it. When Jean placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, he unknowingly formed an inter-dimensional circuit between himself, Max, and the orb. An arc of lightning shot out of the orb which leapt onto Max then onto Jean, there was a glare of white light, brighter than the sun and a loud rumble as each of them were sucked into the orb. For a brief moment in time, Jean felt weightless, as if he was floating through the air. The next thing he knew, he was being violently thrown onto the hard ground. His ears were ringing, the only thing he could hear was his rapidly beating heart and labored breathing. His vision was also very blurred, he could barely make out a figure standing in front of him. As the ringing in his ear began to subside, he could hear the figure talking.

"Are you ok?" the figure asked, it sounded like a woman.

"I think so, what just happened? My ears are ringing like crazy and I can't see anything" Jean told the figure.

"I'll explain that shortly. You're hearing and vision should return to normal soon; cross-dimensional travel takes its toll on the body, you're friend seems to have taken the worst of it though." She said.

Jean could hear Max groaning as he too came to his senses.

"You ok Max?" Jean said but Max didn't answer.

"When your vision returns, I need you to promise me something." The figure asked

"Ok" Jean said, somewhat woosey

"I need you to promise me you will remain calm, ok? Do you promise?"

"I guess so" he replied

"Good! Try to stand up" She requested

Jean tried to stand but was too dizzy and fell back down.

"Here let me help you" she said and Jean felt a veil of invisible energy pick him up and gently set him down on his feet.

Jean's vision was slowly retuning, he soon realized that he was no longer outside, but inside a large room with pillars and a tiled white marble floor. The figure was becoming clearer, but Jean could only recognize a tall white figure.

Max groaned and said "What happened? My head is pounding!"

Jean's vision had almost fully returned, he struggled to focus on the figure, when finally he could see it clearly. It was a horse, taller than he was, had a multi-colored mane and had long horn on it's head. Jean was confused, he looked around the room and said "where are you?"

"I'm right in front of you" the horse said

"what the hell…." Jean said, him brain failing to compute the talking animal

"My name is Princess Celestia, and I'd like to welcome to Equestria. Before we continue I'd like to say that none on this was intentional, you and your friend were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time…" The horse said, but Jean wasn't listening.

He ran over to Max who was still on the ground and yelled in his ear "get up!" then he shook Max by the collar "GET UP!" Max struggled to get to his feet. "What's wrong?" Max said rubbing his eyes.

Jean pointed to Celestia "that! Do you see that?!" he exclaimed.

"the horse?" Max said, still confused.

"Yes, the horse! It just spoke to me!" Jean explained

"It did what?" Max said

"I swear it can talk" Jean said

"I would appreciate it if you didn't speak about me as if I weren't here." Princess Celestia said, irritated by the humans' unruly behavior.

"See?! It CAN talk!" Jean said ecstatically

"Oh my god… " Max muttered.

"Would you two please be quite? I can explain what happ-" Celestia said, but was unable to finish her sentence as the two humans bolted out the door.

Jean ran out of the room first with Max close behind. Jean wasn't looking where he was going and ran into yet a another horse. This one was a colt, it also had a horn on its head, not quite as tall as Celestia, had a blue mane, and was being followed by two other colts, each outfitted with brass armor.

"Hey watch where you're going!" The colt said.

Jean didn't respond but simply turned and ran in the opposite direction down a long hallway with Max after him.

"Shining Armor, would you please bring those two creatures back here" Celestia said to the colt

"Yes your majesty!" He said obediently "You two: with me!" He said to the two colts following him

"Yes sir!" they barked

Jean and Max blindly ran down corridors lined with stained glass windows, searching for an escape. A set of closed doors at the end of a hallway looked promising. The two bust through the doors, expecting to be greeted by the outside. However, they actually burst in on a fancy dinner party. All of the party guests were ponies and horses, they were all dressed in formal wear and were all staring at the two humans in shock.

"Sorry, wrong room" Max said and then the two slammed the doors back shut. Before either of them could think of another plan, they heard a booming voice from down the hallway.

"Hold it!" It was Shining Armor, the colt from before.

With the colt cutting off their only escape, Max had to think fast. He saw one of the stained glass windows was slightly opened. He violently pushed it fully open and looked down, it was a ten foot drop.

"We gotta jump!" He said, Jean looked at him doubtfully.

"Are you crazy? That fall will break bones!" Jean exclaimed

"Not if you land correctly" Max said and leapt out the window. Jean saw his friend hit the ground, then He saw Max stand up, perfectly fine.

Jean hesitated to jump, Shining Armor was getting closer.

"Don't you jump, just come with me and everything will be fine" the colt said

"says the talking horse" Jean said under his breath

"Just jump you wuss!" Max yelled up at his friend

Jean sucked in his fears and jumped, he hit the ground feet first and avoided taking any damage, but his heavy backpack caused him to lose balance and he fell back down on his bottom.

"See? I told you we could jump it." Max said, triumphantly.

Jean looked back up at the window and saw Shining Armor looking back down at them.

"You just have to do it the hard way huh?" Shining Armor said scornfully.

"Let's get moving, he'll be down here soon" Jean said

"Agreed" Max replied

The two looked around for an escape, they soon realized the building they had just jumped out of was actually a castle, they were now in some sort of a walled in courtyard. The wall surrounding the courtyard was about eight feet high.

"I have an idea" Jean said and ran to the nearest section of wall "Come here and give me a boost"

Max soon got the idea, he got up close to the wall, got down on one knee and cupped his hands together. Jean put his foot in Max's hands and Max lifted Jean to the top of the wall. Jean climbed to the top of the wall and in turn, hoisted his friend up. Shining Armor rushed into the courtyard just in time to see the two humans jump over the wall. He let out a frustrated sigh and continued his purist. Meanwhile, the two humans were formulating their next move. Jean saw a mail cart being pulled by two, fast moving work horses.

"There's our ride!" Jean called, and the two ran for it. Max caught up to the cart first and hopped in the back unnoticed. Jean was next, he hurdled into the back of the cart making a loud thumping noise. One of the work horses turned around, but the two humans hid behind a couple of mail bags. Shining Armor came running out of the courtyard gates, out of breath. He saw to two humans sitting in the back of the cart which was rapidly pulling away. As the cart disappeared into the distance, Jean gave Shining Armor a mocking salute. The colt was to tired too catch up and let them slip away. He walked back to Princess Celestia's chamber in defeat.

"Your Majesty…" He said, Celestia looked up from a letter she was reading.

"Yes? Do you have them?" She said expectantly

"No… they got away. They jumped onboard a mail delivery cart, I think it was bound for Ponyville" He admitted, embarrassed

"Very well" Celestia said

"Shall I dispatch a search team to Ponyville?" He asked

"No need. This will present Twilight with a perfect opportunity to showcase her skills" Celestia explained.