//------------------------------//
// First Contact 
// Story: Riding in a HMMWV 
// by M48 Patton 
//------------------------------//

	Beaming Ray almost always had a smile on her face, it was kind of her thing. Always smiling, always chipper. Except for now, that is. Right now, her face was a mask of sheer horror. That would most likely be to the fact that a timberwolf was chasing her, or it could be attributed to the fact that she was lost in the middle of the Everfree forest, or that it was the dead of night and she was afraid of the dark, or it could be a combination of all three, plus the added fact that she was only old enough to have gotten her cutie mark two days prior. Whatever the reason, it is a safe assumption to say that she was downright terrified. 
Her bright blue coat and dark red mane and tail were terrible camouflage, not that she was trying to hide, and her unicorn magic had done nothing but leave a few scratches on the wolf's face. Why was she out here again? Oh yes, another student had told her that a certain zebra living out in the woods had a variety of potions, very possibly one of them could help with her mother's ailing condition. That is, of course, if she ever lived to find said Zebra and somehow miraculously made it out of the forest again. 
Her aching legs launched herself off of a rotting log and over a set of blue flowers. The other student had been adamant that Beaming Ray not touch the blue flowers. The wolf simply smashed through the log and tore up the flowers as it chased after her. She tried to teleport, but her horn simply sparked and fizzled. Well, magic was never a strong suit of hers. At most all she could do was make sunbeams and brighten ponies' day. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, she enjoyed making ponies smile, it just wasn't very useful in her current situation. 
Just as she thought it could not get any worse, it did. She realized her mistake right about the same time she smacked into the wall. Not a wall, a cliff that rose a good thirty feet above her. To her left was an outcropping that blocked her way, to her right was a river that rushed by viciously, daring her to jump in so that it may suck her under and drown her. She turned around just in time to see the timberwolf slowly advancing on her. It's slow advance gave testament to a form of feral intelligence. 	Had it rushed her, she might have been able to duck away as it made the same mistake she had, her face berating her for the treatment it had received. However, the slow approach of a predator upon it's prey guaranteed that any movement she made would be easily spotted and countered. So she did what any young filly would do in her position. Curl up and cry. “Oh Celestia, please save me.” The timberwolf advanced menacingly. “Mother, please forgive me.” Beaming Ray whispered and prepared for the worst. 
Had she had her eyes open, she might have noticed the bright blue flash that occurred above the cliff. What she did notice was the sudden sound of a loud and constant roaring and two beams of light that stabbed over the cliff and out into the night. The sound of crunching trees and a squealing echoed through the forest just before a large, rectangular beast shot over the top of the cliff, still emanating the two beams of light. It emitted a loud BEEEEEP! just before it smashed down onto the frozen timberwolf, crushing it completely. The rectangular creature, carried on by it's momentum, bounced into a small tree that caught the side of it and spun it around. The tree was gone, but its effect on the beast was evident as it slipped and spun it's way towards the river. The beast stopped, halfway in the river and halfway out, the two beams of light piercing into the sky. It's roar increased in volume as the beast pulled itself from the river and then it ceased to roar at all. 
The beams of light continued though, much Beaming Ray's horror, as they brightly illuminated her. She hid her face and cowered once more, expecting the beast to leap upon her and consume her whole. It didn't. Instead, there was the sound of creaking metal, then a slam that sounded like a door being closed. It occurred again, this time from a different location. 
“Nice driving moron!” An angry voice growled. 
“Hey, it ain't my fault! Blame Doc! He's the one who chose the entry point!” Another, softer voice said back. 
“And it was your job to make sure we didn't hit anything when we entered!” The angry voice yelled. 
“Oh yeah! Dodge a cliff! That's doable when the HMMWV is being thrown out of a rift!” Came the softer reply. 
“Look at this! I'm surprise it still runs!” The angry voice exclaimed. 
“Well, I guess it's a good thing I had the workshop put the extra armor on the front.” Softer voice said triumphantly. 
“Which we wouldn't have needed if someone could actually drive!” Angry voice retorted. 
“Screw you.” Softer voice deflated. 
Beaming Ray peaked over her hooves and saw bipedal shapes moving in front of the light beams. There was grunting as one of them pulled branches out of what she assumed was the beast's mouth. Odd that such a beast would allow a smaller creature to deprive it of its meal. The creature pulled the branch out and threw it in her direction. It stopped what it was doing. “Hey Captain! There's a little blue unicorn looking at me!” 
“What?” Came the angry response. 
The was the creaking of metal again then the sudden slam. Beaming Ray could not see what was going on due to the fact that her vision was blinded by the two beams of light. 
“A unicorn? Oh I must see!” A third, professor type of voice appeared. 
“Get back in the HMMWV, Doc. You know the orders. We jump, observe, jump back. No contact with the locals unless unavoidable.” Angry said, although perhaps not angry now, just grouchy. 
“Really Captain, must we do everything by the book?” The one Beaming Ray guessed to be Doc said. 
“Yes.” Grouchy, or Captain said flatly. 
“At least let me take a picture.” Doc protested. 
Captain sighed, then said; “Sure.” 
Doc, a mere black outline in the lights, approached. He was tall, Beaming Ray figured she only came up to his knees. The creature's arms moved in front of him and Beaming Ray cover her head again, expecting the worst. There was a bright flash, then the sound of retreating footsteps. She look up and saw that the creatures were ignoring her again. 
“Captain!” The softer voice called. “The HMMWV's pretty banged up. Radiator's leaking and I can't stop it, plus the underside is FUBAR, so forget about shocks.” 
“What about the dish? Without that we stay here.” Captain asked. 
“Uh, looks fine to me.” Sergeant answered hesitantly. 
“That'll have to do. Doc, you have an exit point?” Captain asked. 
“Negative.” Doc said. “I checked while you two were arguing. There's some strange signals messing with the portals. We need to move out of this forest.” 
“Alright!” Captain said. “Mount up! Sergeant, you're still driving.” 
The creatures disappeared behind the lights and there was the sound of metal creaking and then slamming. The beast roared to life, then began to back away. It turned and began to push its way through the forest. Two red lights stared back at Beaming Ray as it crunched away. 
Beaming Ray was unsure of what just happened. However, it was obvious that the beast itself was not interested in devouring her. In fact, it had saved her from the timberwolf. She had also heard that it was leaving the forest. Perhaps she could follow it out! Perhaps the creature was from Celestia herself! 
She jumped up and raced after the beast, her breath ragged and short, but her eyes full of hope. The beast was only able to go as fast as it could mow down the forest, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Beaming Ray managed to keep up, barely, but she was losing breath and it would not be long before she fell behind. 
The beast got caught in a clump of vines, stopping it momentarily. She used this as an opportunity to pause and catch her breath. That's when she noticed the glowing eyes staring hungrily at her. And not just one pair of eyes, at least three timberwolves were approaching through the undergrowth. She screamed and scrambled for the beast. 
As much as she feared it, she trusted it not to eat her. The timberwolves would not be so easily deterred and charged forwards. 
When Beaming Ray dove underneath the beast, it's growling stopped. There was a metal squeak from the right side of the beast and two boots planted themselves on the ground. Suddenly, there was a staccato of thunderclaps and little metal barrels fell to the ground by the boots. It stopped and she heard what she assumed was Sergeant speaking. “You know, the thirty cal might have been a bit overkill.” 
“No such thing.” Captain grunted. 
The boots turned and knelt down. Some sort of appendage made it's way underneath the beast and for Beaming Ray. She squeaked in panic and tried to get away, but it grabbed her mane and dragged her out. She began to kick and struggle, but another appendage wrapped itself around underneath her forelegs and picked her up. The appendage that had grabbed her mane was now softly stroking it and a calming voice kept repeating, “It's okay” to her. 
The creature known as Captain carried her to the side of the beast that had a hole in it now. Placing her gently on the bottom of it, Captain got in after her and pulled the side of the beast closed with a loud slam. His legs were positioned over Beaming Ray as she huddled on the floor and shivered uncontrollably. The beast roared to life again, but muted. 
Beaming Ray continued to shiver, too shocked by the turn of events to even speak. Captain's appendage, which she could now see ended in five smaller appendages that moved independently, reached down and pet her. She had no idea why, but the effect was extremely soothing to her distressed state. 
Now that she was calm, she got a good look at her possible rescuers. Both Captain and Sergeant were wearing tan, baggy outfits with lots of pockets. Sergeant wore a helmet while Captain wore a hat. Sergeant's pale face was very kind looking, accented by his blue eyes. Captain's pale face could have been made out of stone, yet his brown eyes held the same friendliness as Sergeant's whenever he looked at her. Behind the seats of Captain and Sergeant, Doc wore the same tan outfit except his outer vest was blue, and his skin was darker than that of Sergeant's and Captain's. There was a lot of important looking stuff behind him with many flashing lights. 
“Soooo, about not making contacting the locals?” Sergeant said. 
“Just drop it.” Captain growled. 
“Awww.” Sergeant teased. “Look at you, big and scary on the outside, but really just a softy-” 
*Click* He stopped as Captain held something metal up Sergeant's head. 
“Okay okay okay!” Sergeant said defensively. 
Captain put the metal thing down and began to pet Beaming Ray. “Don't worry.” He said softly. “Soon as we find out some of your friends, you can go home.” 
She was about to thank him for his kindness when the beast stopped suddenly. Captain's head smacked itself against on the box in front of him and he uttered some choice words before yelling; “SERGEANT I SWEAR I'M GOING TO KILL YOU WHEN WE GET BACK!” 
“Sir, there's six miniature horses in front of us.” Sergeant said calmly. 
“Oh.” Captain said and looked up. “Huh.” 
The side of the metal beast opened with a squeak and Beaming Ray felt Captain pick her up. 
“Hey wait!” Sergeant protested. “How do we know that their friendly horses?” 
“Sergeant, I don't care what universe we've ended up in, there is no way that a bunch of pastel color horsies can be evil. Doc! Where to?” 
“Take a left, the interference is almost gone.” Doc replied. 
Beaming Ray was hoisted out of the side of the beast and unceremoniously dropped on a patch of grass. “Bye now.” Captain said as he pulled the side of the beast shut again. She watched as it simply turned away and roared into the forest, destroying whatever lay in its path. She was vaguely aware of the pounding of hooves before they were upon her. Feeling herself being picked up by magic, she was turned to stare into the faces of the Elements of Harmony. Finding herself suddenly surrounded by the saviors of Equestria and bombarded by questions that she couldn't answer, she simply began to cry. Suddenly, the questions stopped and she felt herself being carefully rocked back and forth in the forelegs of the Element of Honesty. 
Realizing she was finally safe, she relaxed and yawned. Suddenly, the forest was lit up by a blue flash that flew into the sky and disappeared into a blue hole that vanished. “What. . . was that?” The Element of Magic asked stunned. 
“A HMMWV!” Beaming Ray said happily.