//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: First Contact // Story: Ponies in Mayberry (My Little Pony × The Andy Griffith Show) // by IDontWatchMLP //------------------------------// With a population of approximately two thousand people, and almost everyone in town being related or friends with each other, the crime rate in Mayberry North Carolina always seemed to be the lowest in the country. Yet dispite most of the arrests being only simple backwoods moonshiners, Sheriff Andy Taylor always had to be on the ball to keep the townsfolk at peace. Either by ending their mostly childish disputes, or helping them stay inside the law. He was always there to help when he was needed. But not everyday he had to focus too hard on keeping everything in order. As it was a surprisingly quiet summer day in Mayberry. Even for small town standards... On these mostly quiet days, the Sheriff and his close friend and deputy, Barney Fife, had the time to talk and get some office work done at the courthouse. "Hey Andy." The deputy looked up from his newspaper. "Yeah Barn?" Andy continued to work. "Listen to this. This morning, local farmer Clint Hayes reported that  while he was outside at night working, he was suddenly blinded by a flash of light in the sky, as a large circular object flew above him. Shortly after, a short and skinny being approached him in the dark and restrained him. The rest he says was a confusing blur of memories and movements." "Hmm." Andy still continued to work. "Well?" Barney asked. "Well what?" The sheriff finally looked up. "Well, what do you think?" Barney put down the newspaper. "Oh, I wouldn't think too much about it Barn." "You-- You wouldn't think too much about it?!" Barney was shocked. "Andy! This is practically undeniable proof that interdimensional beings exist! You know aliens and UFO's and such!" "Barney, I, I wouldn't--" Andy started. "You wouldn't what Andy?! If this isn't proof enough for a person I don't know what is!" "Barney! Barney! Listen, listen. I'm not saying that aliens, and UFOs, and stuff like that doesn't exist. I'm just saying that we can't take Clint's story very seriously." "Well why not Andy!? Why not?!" Barney became even more flustered. "Well, for one thing, Clint was drunk at the time." "Now what's that got to do with--" Barney paused. "What did you say?" "I said Clint was drunk at the time. Remember? You brought him in not a week ago for moonshining." Andy explained. Barney then remembered the night he went out and arrested him. "Oh boy, that Clint!" With that said, he marched angrily into the back room. Before Andy could tease Barney further, the telephone rang. "Sheriff's Office!" Andy answered the phone. ... "Ah howdy Rafe." ... "What?" ... "Well sure thing, we'll be up there as soon as we can." ... "Alright, bye!" The sheriff stood up from his desk. "Hey Barn! BARNEY!" "Yeah Andy..." Barney replied as he walked back in, still a bit in a sour mood. "Rafe Hollister just called and said he has an emergency up on his property." "Emergency? W-Wha, what kind of emergency?" "He didn't say. But whatever it is, it sounded pretty serious... Let's go." "Right, right!" Barney perked up. "Just gotta, just gotta get my bullet." "So early this morning," Rafe started as he led Andy and Barney into the woods. "I was outside feeding my chickens, and back this way I saw a bright flash of light in the sky. Kind of like silent lightning. I didn't think too much about at first Andy, but just ten minutes ago I heard a woman's voice like she was in trouble. So I came down this path a ways, and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing!" To the shock of the sheriff and his deputy, right in the middle of the clearing was a small purple unicorn mare, with her front right hoof caught in a large spring trap. She seemed to be trying to focus on something. "C'mon Twilight. You can do it. Just concentrate. Just concentra-- AAARRRRRGGHH!!!" The three men crouched out of sight from the unicorn behind a bush. "Andy... What is it?" Barney finally whispered. "Well Barn, it looks like a small talking unicorn." "I know that Anj! But-- But how--" Andy and Barney were so distracted by the purple unicorn that they almost forgot about the their farmer friend beside them. "Well what do you think Andy?" Rafe broke the silence among them. "I'm not sure Rafe. I declare, I've never seen anything like this before." The men watched as the unicorn's horn sparked of a magical purple glow as she tried hard again to concentrate, only to be cut off by her own shrill screams. "AAARRRRGGGHH!!! Nonononono!!! Focus Twilight! Focus! AAARRRRGGGHH!!!" "Hey Barn?" Andy whispered. "Yeah Andy?" Barney replied. "You got a handkerchief on you?" "Well yeah, but why--" "Good good." Andy interrupted. "Give it to me." Barney watched as Andy folded his handkerchief. "Andy, what are you gonna do?" "I'm gonna blindfold her." "Huh?" "Blindfolding animals calms them down. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work on a unicorn." "Andy! This isn't some normal wild animal! This is a living breathing, talking unicorn! It ain't gonna work Andy!" "It's worth a try Barney." With that said, The sheriff quietly slipped out of the bush and approached the trapped unicorn from behind. Before the unicorn could once again try to escape the trap that held her hoof in place, she felt the sudden presence of an unknown creature as her vision was blacked out. "AAAH! WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHAT'S--" She started to panic like a scared little filly as she tried to remove the blindfold with her other hoof to see what was 'attacking' her. Surprisingly, she didn't feel the expected sharp claws of a monster dig into her flesh and drag her off somewhere to be eaten. Instead, she felt the jaws of the trap slowly loosen against her hoof, letting her finally step away from the trap. The unknown creature had saved her... After stepping back some more and regaining her balance, the unicorn shook off the handkerchief and let it fall to the ground. And then she saw him. Her mouth agape in bewilderment. Standing tall over her, blocking out the slowly setting sun was some kind of male bipedal creature looking down at her. Dispite looking genuinely confident, he seemed to be at a loss for words. Both of them stared silently at each other, perplexed at what they where seeing. Seeing that this was going nowhere, and that the creature didn't appear to be very dangerous, the unicorn decided to formally introduce herself. Completely forgetting the pain in her hoof and how thirsty she was... "Hello! I'm Twilight Sparkle. What's your name? I haven't seen your species before. What species are you called? What are those things hanging off your hooves? What--" "Uh, Uh." The creature interrupted. "Twilight was it? Maybe-- Maybe I'm wrong... But I don't believe you're from around here are you?" "Well..." Twilight started. "I was testing out a new teleportation spell with my friends, and then something went wrong, and then I ended up here, and-- Wait, where exactly is here? Who are you?" "Uh, well. This-- This is Mayberry. And I, I'm Andy Taylor. I'm what you call-- Well what I mean to say is, I'm a human." "Hmmm..." Twilight circled the human, getting a closer look at his unique features. "I'd like to study your kind and learn about your ways of life, but I should really go and find my friends. They're probably looking for me. Thank you for helping me out of that werid metal thing. Even though your way of helping is a bit... odd." As the unicorn started to walk off into the wilderness to look for her friends, the sheriff spoke up. "Wait! What just a minute. Hey Barney! Come over here a minute!" "Who's Barney?" Twilight questioned. "Is he another human?" "Andy! I'm allergic to horse hair, remember?" A voice come from behind a bush. "I'm not a horse, I'm a pony." Twilight corrected as she stuck her head inside the bush to take a look at the other human, scaring him backwards. "Hello human! I'm Twilight Sparkle." Twilight gave him an awkward smile, eager to introduce herself. "Andy, how can you be so calm about this?! We don't even know what she is, or where she came from for that mattar." Barney backed away from the smiling unicorn. "I came from Equestria." Twilight simply put, not realizing that she was in an entirely different universe than her own. "Uh, Twilight?" Andy walked up to her. "You-- you said something about finding your friends... Are they ponies like you?" "Well, not exactly." Twilight turned around to face him. "Two of them are pegasus ponies, two of them are earth ponies... And Rarity is unicorn..." "Uh-- So, so what you're saying is that five ponies like you, that can talk and do magic and stuff like that are somewhere here Mayberry?" "Well..." Twilight started. "Well they should be. All them were there on our way through the portal." "Uh-huh..." After thinking for a bit, the sheriff walked over to his deputy. "Andy! What are doing getting involved with this... pony?!" Barney whispered. "Well Barn, unless this pony is lying, and I don't see any reason why she would. There are five magical ponies somewhere out there in Mayberry... Now what do you suppose is gonna happen when somebody comes across one of them?" "Uh, well..." "I'll tell you what's gonna happen, they're gonna scare people. Folks in town are gonna start asking questions, questions we don't have answers for. Or worse... They're gonna get shot." Both Andy and Barney turned to look at Twilight who had already introduced herself to Rafe and started asking questions about himself. Dispite spending most of the day in the sun caught in trap, she seemed adorably oblivious to the dangers of Mayberry all around her. She and her friends needed help. "Somehow..." The sheriff began. "We've got to track down and babysit 6 magical talking ponies. And until then, Mayberry is under pony lockdown..."