-:|Part 4|:-
Spike slowly got to his feet, wobbling a little as he held a hand up to his head, rubbing it in circles. His eyes were spinning around in their sockets, and he could have sworn he saw little winged Rarity’s flying around him in circles.
“Oh man...” he groaned as he took an uneasy step forward. “I gotta remind everypony to knock next time before they open the-”
SLAM
“Spike! Spiiiike!”
“...Door...”
Twilight looked around frantically for her little assistant, but then decided that she was in too much of a rush and assumed he could hear her anyways. “Spike! The alien is real! And it’s alive and smelly and looks very terrorizing! I’m going to gather up our friends and we’re going to confront this thing in force, in the meantime please write to the princess and ask her for her help!”
A soft groan came from behind the opened door, but Twilight didn’t notice it.
“You got that? Okaythanksbye!” And out she went, making sure the door was closed behind her.
Spike slowly peeled himself off the wall - yet again - and landed face first on the floor, wondering why life was hating him today.
:~:
The six friends, once they were all gathered up, made their way across Sweet Apple Acres to the crash site of the extraterrestrial outhouse. Twilight and Applejack were a bit scared, but determined to face their next biggest foe. Rainbow Dash was confident she could knock the thing out again in a few hits, as Rarity was more intrigued about what it was wearing than anything else. Fluttershy was scared for her life, and Pinkie Pie was internally wondering what the secret answer to the whole universe was. She was sure it was some sort of number.
At any rate, they all made it to the edge of the crater, and Pinkie Pie ended up making one of the most important observations that could ever be made about the alien at that point in time.
“Hey! I think it’s gone to sleep!” she exclaimed, pointing her hoof at it.
“What the hay!?” Applejack, despite her fears, ran up to the fallen form of the alleged alien. “But, but it was standin up! It was walking towards us and makin weird noises and everything!”
“Well it certainly does look like it’s asleep...” Twilight thought aloud as she also got closer to inspect it. “However, we shouldn’t make assumptions. Alien or not, this thing probably has totally different versions or definitions for the term ‘sleep’, in fact, it may not need to sleep at all.”
“I don’t care where it’s from or what it does,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew right up to the thing, taking an aggressive mid-air pose. “Nopony goes to sleep when they’ve got a fight with the Dash coming!”
“P-p-please don’t wake it...” Fluttershy whispered as she cowered behind Rarity. “It looks... scary...”
“It looks like a fashion disaster!” Rarity exclaimed as she also approached the alien. “Just look at what it’s got covering its body!” she gave the exterior part over some round area next to its arms a few taps, making a slight ding sound each time. “A very bland gray metal suit that looks like it was assembled by a paper mache artist!”
“Hey, what’s this thing on its back?” Pinkie Pie asked as she poked at some sort object that was attached to it. “It looks really weird!”
“Hmm...” Twilight examined the alien’s rifle closely, and then noticed what appeared to be glass on top of the main body of it. “Let me get a closer look at that.”
What Twilight had meant was for Pinkie Pie to move away so she could get closer to it and examine it more thoroughly. What she certainly hadn’t meant was for Pinkie Pie to grab onto the thing and suddenly pull it off its back with an audible click. ...The latter ended up happening.
“PINKIE!” All five of the other mares gasped in unison.
“What?” She asked, truly confused. “You said you wanted to examine it, right?” She looked around, all her friends were looking at her with gaping mouths and widened eyes as she held the strange device in her hooves.
“Pinkie!” Twilight gasped. “By Celestia’s beard, don’t just take something from it!”
“Why not? It’s not like we’re stealing it!” Pinkie hefted the thing over her shoulder nonchalantly as she continued. “Besides, we’re just borrowing it so we can see how it works.” She began looking over the device, her eyes nearly stretching out of their sockets to look over every nook and cranny of the thing.
“Pinkie, give me that,” Twilight ordered as her magic took hold of it, pulling i away from her pink friend’s grasp.
“Aww,” Pinkie Pouted, crossing her front hooves and sitting on her rump.
Twilight, along with her other friends, ignored the pouting as Twilight inspected the device closely. All of the others gathered around, watching as she felt over it with her hooves and her magic. Off to the side a scroll and quill floated up, taking notes as she went along with her examination.
“Hmm... appears to be made mostly out of metal, surprisingly lighter than expected though still quite heavy, A long barrel with a nozzle at one end while the other end supports some sort of holding apparatus...” She looked over the body closely, placing her hooves onto what we all know to be the magazine. “Some parts are loose, perhaps interchangable, no real purpose for this thing can be determined however. Perhaps its purpose has not yet been discovered in our society.”
As she said this, one of her hooves slid over a noticeably slimmer and slightly curved portion of the device. The tip of her hoof touched it, and to her surprise it jiggled just slightly. She attempted to tug on it, but it would not budge. Looking over the body again she saw a small switch on the side with the words “Safe”, “Semi”, and “Auto” written along an arc in line with the switch.
“Woah...” she whispered to herself just loud enough for the others to hear.
“What is it Twi’?” Applejack asked.
“There’s words written on this device, words I can read! Look!” She used her magic to turn the object over, allowing her friends to see what she just examined.
“So wait, These things can write Equestrian?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Probably not just write it, but probably read and even speak it as well!” Rarity exclaimed. “Oh dear, I wonder if this is even an alien at all that we’re dealing with.”
“Are you sure this isn’t a prank? Cuz this looks an awful lot like a prank!” Pinkie claimed as she put a hoof to her chest. “I can tell from having seen - and done - many pranks in my time.”
“Honestly, I still don’t know if this is a prank or not. But this all seems a bit too elaborate to be a prank though...”
“Well who cares!” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “What the heck does this thing do anyways?” She pointed to the device still held by Twilight’s magic.
“I don’t know, Rainbow, I’m still trying to- hey!”
Rainbow Dash pulled it out of Twilight’s magical grip, hovingering in the air while her front hooves fiddled around with it. Her looked closely, finding the little switch with the words and put pressure on it. To her surprise it did not press in, ut instead slid over and clicked into place right next to the word “Semi”.
“Rainbow Dash, stop! You don’t know what that thing does!” Twilight warned.
“Relax, Twilight,” the rainbow-maned pegasus assured as she held device nonchalantly in her hooves with the nozzle pointed outwards in some random direction level with the ground. “I’m sure whatever it does, it’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“Consarnit, Rainbow!” Applejack yelled. “Give it back before ya hurt somepony!”
“Oh yeah, like this thing’s gonna hurt somepony,” she teased, fiddling with the slim, slightly curved portion that Twilight was messing with earlier. “What’s it gonna do, spray water at us or-”
BANG!
Rainbow Dash didn’t finish her sentence before her hoof was able to press down on the trigger, firing off a single round from the rifle. The kicked knocked it from her grasp, allowing it to fall to the ground as the extremely loud sound rang everypony’s ears as their bodies jumped in surprised. Everypony there stayed still, mouths wide again in shock with their eyes open wide and their ears flattened against their heads from the incredibly loud noise. The only Pony that was doing something dIfferent was Fluttershy, who was already halfway to her home by that time.
Meanwhile...
“Mmmhmhmhm...” The jelly pony purred as he basked in a large jar of strawberry jelly. “Fun fun fun.... heehee...”
Suddenly, his basking was interrupted as an incredibly tiny, yet very fast-moving object impacted with his jar, shattering it across its midsection and spilling all his jelly everywhere.
“Oh no!” he cried as he looked around, seeing all of his precious jelly spilled across the ground. “My jimmies, they have been rustled! Again!”
Meanwhile...
Sweetie Belle was casually walking around in her sister’s boutique, trying to stay out of trouble after Twilight dropped her off and took her sister away to face down the alien. She sighed, sitting in the middle of the room looking as bored as ever. She looked over to the side, seeing something bright and shiny sitting on her sister’s desk. Determined not to break it or anything else in the store, she cautiously approaches the desk, reaching her hoof up just enough to-
Some unseeable force suddenly burst through the window, crashing through Rarity’s sewing machine, knocking the shiny thing away from Sweetie Belle, ricocheting off a pole, smashing through a few ponequins, tearing up several curtains, ricocheting off a metal mirror while breaking the glass, and then finally flying out another window on the opposite side of the store.
Sweetie belle stopped, looking around at the devastation that she couldn’t help but feel she caused.
“...Dumb shiny thing!”
Meanwhile...
Lyra was sitting at her desk in her house, her quill controlled by her magic floating away from a piece of paper. She held the piece of paper up, looking over it with a content smile on her face.
“There,” she began in a modest tone. “Now I can finally save 15% or more on my car insurance by switching to-”
Something crashed through the window just then, tearing a clean hole through the paper where a letter ‘I’ was supposed to be and exiting via another window in the house.
“...Gecko?”
Meanwhil-Ah! What the hell?! I think someone just shot a hole through my window! ...Aww damnit they spilled my coffee. Now my jimmies have been rustled too!
:~:
“RAINBOW DASH!” Twilight practically screamed while holding her hooves over her ears. “What Celestia’s name did you do!?”
“I dunno, I dunno!” Dash pleaded, her confidence suddenly unfound as she stared at the device laying on the ground, a bit of smoke trailing off the nozzle. “I didn’t mean to, honest! I was just messing with it and I think I hit a triger or something and it just did... that!”
“Dag nabbit rainbow!” Applejack yelled. “Ya made all of our ears ring, and worst of all ya scared away poor Fluttershy!”
“I said I was sorry, okay!? What more do you want from me?” Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves, sitting down on the ground facing away from her friends to pout.
“T-twilight, darling,” Rarity began hesitantly, trying to draw attention away from her guilt-ridden friend. “Perhaps we should move this contraption, and that thing that was carrying it to a more secluded location so that nopony ends up getting hurt by it.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Rarity,” Twilight began as the ringing in her ears finally faded away. “I better bring this thing to my library at least, lock it up in the basement or something until we can get the princess here.”
“Are ya sure we should keep it in your home, sugarcube?” Applejack asked as she looked worriedly at Twilight. “Ah already ain’t likin that thing it was carrying around, but ah ain’t got no clue what exactly the thing itself will do if and when it wakes up.”
“You’re right, I’ll see if I can’t put some sort of barrier spell around it when we get back. But don’t worry, you know how I am when it comes to making sure everything is safe and accounted for,” Twilight smiled a bit, trying to fortify her friends’ confidence.
“Then it’s settled,” rarity said as she looked over the group. “Applejack, you and Rainbow Dash escort Twilight back to her library with that... thing in tow. Pinkie Pie...” she looked over at her pink friend, who was making silly faces at the downed form of the alien. “...Um, would you be a dear and help me go comfort Fluttershy?’
“Not a problem!” Pinkie declared as she smiled vibrantly at the fashionata.
“Alright. Everypony, you know what to do.” Twilight’s horn glowed, her magic wrapping around both the gadget and the alien, floating them up beside her. “Let’s get moving. WIth any lucky, Princess Celestia is already at the library.”
“Let’s get goin then!” Applejack said as they all sprang into action, with the exception of Pinkie Pie, who more bounced with a flurry of giggles than anything.
:~:
Spike finally got himself off the ground again, making sure to wobble away from the door in case it to slam open again. He sighed as he rubbed his head, a very bad migraine setting in as his whole body was aching. It apparently wasn’t very pleasant to have your whole body flattened against the wall twice in a row, so Spike just really wanted to lay down for a while. But before that, he headed into the kitchen to get himself something for the pounding in his head.
He checked the cabinets, but there was simply no medicine at all to be found. He thought about heading to the bathroom upstairs to check there for some medicine, as that would seem like a much more likely spot, however the fact that it was a walk, then up some stairs, then some more walking sort of discouraged him from taking that course of action. Instead, he opted to head into the basement since it was much closer. Twilight had a bunch of weird stuff down there, maybe some Tylenol was one of them.
After discovering there to be no relief for his headache down there, he realized he would have to go all the way up to the bathroom after all. Sighing in irritation and discomfort, he began his ascent up the basement stairs when he heard something open the front door of the library. He knew then that somepony had come in, and was actively talking, meaning that there was probably more than one.
As he got up to the door of the basement-
SMACK
-it swung open towards him, smacking him in the face and sending him tumbling backwards down the stairs.
As he lay on the ground, wondering why life hated him so much that day, he heard some noises coming from the top of the stairs.
“Rainbow Dash, be careful with that thing! It could go off again!” To Spike, that voice sounded like Twilight Sparkle’s.
“Don’t worry,” another voice said, which he presumed was Rainbow Dash’s even through his dazed state. “I put the little switch thing back on safe, so it should be good now.”
Spike didn’t see her throw something into the basement, as his eyes were closed while he tried to nurture his horribly aching head, but he certainly felt it as it came down the steps and smacked him straight in the dome. Spike fell back - yet again - laying flat on his back on the floor with a pained groan emanating from his throat.
“Dash!” he heard Twilight’s voice yell. “You could at least try to be a bit more careful with it! You don’t want to break the thing, then we might not find out what it does. And what’s worse is you might make its owner very upset. You should try being more gentle with things, like this.”
After saying this, Spike heard the sound of something being controlled by magic float down the stairs, and then get “gently” set down... right on top of him. His legs kicked around wildly as the rest of his body was smothered by the large and very heavy metal thing laying on him.
“Hey, I just noticed something,” came Twilight’s voice as the door to the basement began to close. “Where’s Spike?”