Chapter 2

Earth

Along a simple, two-lane road, both tall trees and uncut grass lie motionless, without a breeze to disturb them. From a distance, there was an anomaly approaching this otherwise calm section of pavement. With the haste and gusto of a rave party aboard a speeding locomotive, a blue SUV sped by the scenery. The once peaceful trees and grass were thrown aroun by the turbulence of the speeding vehicle. Clicking of the wheels on the vehicle were heard as it hit minor dips and bumps in the paved road. The music playing inside the vehicle was extremely loud; a normal person wouldn't even be able to hear themselves think through the techno style beat. The speakers, or what was left of them, were being pushed to their very limits as the driver’s jeans swayed back and forth from the beat. None of this phased the driver as he kept going; the speedometer needle twitching on the very tip of 65 miles per hour, ten over the posted speed limit. The driver clearly didn't care as a smile streaked across its face.

The person driving was a male wearing both blue jeans and an unbuttoned denim jacket. His shirt was brown, matching his brown hair that was mostly covered by his orange baseball cap. On the face of the hat was a simple blue letter A, which didn't stand for anything in particular. The driver raised his right hand from the steering wheel to adjust his sunglasses as he continued bouncing his head to the beat of the song. He was a very happy man today, and he showed it. The lyrics of the song started back up as the man attempted to sing along to the female voice.

However a big dip in the road caused him to bite his tongue.

“Damn road.” He spat, moving his throbbing tongue around his mouth.

An abundance of potholes, cracks, and even vacant patches of road went largely unnoticed as the car continued being thrown about by these obstacles. The shaking produced various metal clangs from things in the back being thrown around, but this failed to drown out the music blaring in the front. Today was too good of a day for the man to be bothered by either the poorly maintained road or the noisiness coming from the back.

With a good wad of cash in his pocket, he was on his way to have a decent dinner tonight. Four in the afternoon was a little early for dinner, but he had grown ill of constantly eating from the McDonalds value menu for the past three months. To celebrate, tonight would be a glorious steak dinner. He could feel himself drooling just thinking about it; it had been a long time since he has had anything so elegant to eat. His job as an independent mechanic had run dry for the time being, which left him with very little work and, consequently, very little money.

Luckily, he had just finished a week long job, doing a complete engine overhaul on a classic 1971 Mustang. He had wanted to leave a good impression on it’s owner, him being a new client, so he gave it his all and fixed the engine with all the skill and precision of even top-ranked mechanics. The smile on his client's face was all he needed to see, but the cold hard cash he received was one hell of a bonus.

Now he was over five grand richer, and finally able to stop living out of his car, if only for a little while. He wouldn’t abandon the old girl; it had been with him since he got his license at the ripe age of 17. The car wasn't new when he got it; it was still in great shape with relatively low mileage. The 1996 S10 Blazer, blue in color, was quite literally the only thing he cherished in life. After all, it's all he really had. He lived in it, he worked in it, and of course, he drove it. Being a skilled mechanic, he felt he owed it to his car to keep it in tip top condition, a cinch in his line of work.

Going along with the electronic beat of the song, he tapped his hands on the steering wheel while keeping his attention on the road. Suddenly, the music began to fade and was replaced with static. At first the man ignored the minor fluctuation, but it got steadily worse. He ejected the cassette tape, darting his eyes from it to the road, and saw nothing wrong with the tape. The radio, too, was being interrupted by static. Perhaps his radio was on the fritz? He blew once on the tape and put it back into the player, going for another try. It appeared to be in working order, and yet it kept cutting out and going to static. Then the music stopped all together, and his radio blared only audible static.

He quickly turned off his radio amidst the confusion; the sudden sound had begun to rupture his eardrums. He turned his attention back to the road, where a bright, mysterious light had begun to show itself. For a moment it mesmerized him; its beauty was astounding as it grew larger and brighter. He could feel himself being drawn to it, as though it was calling to him. The fact that he was speeding dangerously towards it suddenly registered in his mind as he hastily applied the brakes. He could feel the pulsation of the brake pedal; he quickly regretted letting the warped brake rotors go longer than he should have allowed. He had to make a choice at the time: it was either brake rotors, or food.

With the brakes trying and failing to stop the car, he resorted to pumping the pedal. Alas, he was unable to stop in time. He zoomed right into the light and was completely engulfed by its brightness. Even with his sunglasses on, he still had to shield his eyes from the blinding white light. He had no clue what was going on; all he could do was sit tight and hope for the best and that his brakes didn't fail. Just as quickly as the light had appeared, it suddenly faded away, leaving no trace it had ever been there. The only evidence that it had even been there was four skid marks and a very confused mail carrier on the other side of the road. The blue Blazer had vanished from existence.

Equestria

It was a beautiful day outside; a clear, crisp, blue sky spanned the entire horizon. As if in a show of defiance however, a little white cloud, no bigger than a basketball, hovered above some trees. From seemingly nowhere, a blue blur rushed by with a streak of rainbow following closely as the cloud was pulverized by the business end of a sky blue colored hoof. Hovering next to where the small cloud had once sat was a small cyan blue pegasus. She had an ungroomed rainbow colored mane and tail, with nearly perfect streaks of each color running along them. With a confident smile, she admired her handiwork.

"Not a cloud left in the sky.” Glancing down to the ground, she focused on an orange pony sitting in the grass wearing a brown cowpony hat over her blonde mane. "What's my time, AJ?" the pegasus called down.

The orange pony looked at a golden stopwatch, her eyes widening in surprise. "Nine point six two seconds. That be a new record Dash!" she called out. The orange pony stood up and tossed her hat into the air with glee.

Gracefully, the pegasus lowered herself down atop one of the apple trees. She quickly snatched one from the top of it, and lowered herself down to meet the orange pony. She took a massive bite out of the apple.

"Sphee? I Phold dou dat I-" the pegasus began, before a orange hoof pressed upon her mouth.

"Chew, then talk there, sugarcube," the orange pony said, smiling.

The pegasus nodded, then swallowed, followed by a sigh of relief. "Sorry about that. Anyway, I told you I could beat my record! Nothing to it, just gotta keep practicing," she smiled, taking another massive bite out of the apple.

"Well that was amazin', Rainbow Dash. Now, ah gotta get back to helpin' Big Mac with the apple buckin'," the orange pony said, throwing her hat back onto her head. She turned away, beginning her trot back toward a large red barn.

"I know, cause after all, I'm the best," the cyan blue pegasus boasted, rubbing her left hoof on her chest. "Oh, and um... Thanks for the help Applejack; it’s kinda hard to time myself AND practice," Dash said, rubbing the back of her head.

The orange pony, Applejack, turned around quickly and nodded with a smile, then continued on her way. She enjoyed helping out her fellow ponies, and Rainbow Dash was one of her closest friends. She always enjoyed seeing Dash improving her flying techniques. And after working since morning, it was nice to take a breather and relax in the shade. Applejack and her brother had gotten so caught up in work that they completely missed lunch. Dash's arrival was a good reminder for her to stop and eat.

Now that Applejack had some food and a little social time with her good friend, she was ready to continue her work for the day. She still had about ten acres of trees to buck, so she got right to work.

Dash watched Applejack walk off before she jumped back into the air, dropping the apple core in the grass. She loved to show off in front of her friends, as all of them were usually impressed with her flying stunts. Applejack was the hardest one to excite however, being the rough pony that she is. Applejack and Dash always saw things differently; the two constantly tried to out show one another, with their mutual stubbornness refusing to allow the other a leg up.

Dash smiled to herself, proud to beat her own record once again, this time by nearly a tenth of a second! Humming to herself, she slowly flew over Sweet Apple Acres toward Ponyville. She wanted to go brag about her new record to her other friends. There was no sense in overdoing it, so she decided to take the flight easy, gliding most of the way. Suddenly, something caught her eye below; it was a small bright light. Dash stopped, hovering in place with her wings flapping. The light continued to enlarge and brighten as it engulfed the ground. The light eventually reached such an intensity that Dash was forced to look away.

Just as she turned away, a loud crack echoed throughout the orchard, as something then roared from the light. Dash only got a short glimpse of a dark blue object racing from the light. She could also hear the dirt road below being dug into, like something dragging along, trying to stop. There was a loud crash as the light vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. Dash looked down to where the light once was, curious as to what just happened below her. Now there were several streaks going along the road, similar to wagon wheel tracks, only wider. It appeared as though something had been digging into the road, trying and failing to stop, confirming the noise she heard.

She followed the tracks with her eyes, keeping her altitude and her wings steady. The trail went for about another twenty yards, before she saw the blue thing again. It appeared to have crashed into one of Applejack's trees. Several apples were strewn on the ground, knocked down from the sudden impact of the strange blue object. Dash quickly glided down to look closer, keeping some distance from the blue object while being close enough for a good look.

It was a strange looking box with wheels, resembling a carriage. The problem was there were no ponies pulling it in front, so had it been moving? Especially at such speed, judging from the impact it left in the tree. Smoke had started to pour from the front end as some dark, almost black liquid began to leak from underneath. This thing was out of this world, and Dash had absolutely no idea where it came from. Was it from the light? Dash then thought about Applejack. She needed to be told about this, with one of the victims being a prized apple tree.

Dash quickly took to the sky, wasting no time in reaching Applejack and telling her of this strange phenomenon. What was it that just crashed into one of her trees? Was it alien? Or something else? So many questions raced through Dash's mind as she sped off that she failed to notice movement from within the blue "carriage".