Rainbow Dash flew swiftly towards the Everfree Forest. Long before she arrived at the forest's border she noticed the large group of structures all along the edge.
"There's gotta be hundreds of them! Where did they even come from?"
As she reached the first of the structures she was able to see bipedal creatures of various sizes. They didn't have any hair on their bodies except for their manes and they seemed to be agitated about something. A few of them took notice of her and began pointing up at her. Not wanting to disturb the... whatever they were, Rainbow Dash quickly descended to one of the random patches of grass that seemed to be behind all of the cottages.
The first thing she noticed was that the grass wasn't as soft as she was used to. It was also a lot darker in color. She lowered her muzzle to the ground and gave it an experimental taste.
Immediately upon tasting the grass Rainbow spit it out gagging violently.
"Ugh, I know grass isn't the tastiest thing ever, but this isn't even edible!"
All of a sudden she heard the sound of a door opening somewhere. She turned her head and saw that one of the smaller creatures with a short blonde mane and wearing a light pink dress had just come out of the cottage. Upon seeing Dash the little creature froze.
Rainbow Dash tensed herself trying to anticipate anything that might happen. The small creature smiled so wide that even Pinkie Pie would have been impressed and started to jump up and down in obvious excitement.
~"It's Rainbow Dash! It's Rainbow Dash! Mommy come quick Rainbow Dash is outside!"~
Rainbow Dash had not anticipated this. She thought that the small creature would be afraid or angry, but not excited. She supposed that perhaps her awesomeness transcended even words. Her musings were interrupted by the appearance of a larger creature who seemed similar in appearance to that of the small creature in every way except for stature.
~"Honey, I told you not to bother mommy right now, she is very- what is that thing!?"~
~"I told you mommy, it's Rainbow Dash!"~
~"Emily, go back inside"~
~"But mommy! It's the real Rainbow Dash."~
~"Now young lady or no desert for a week."~
She made a harrumph and returned inside ~"Don't mess with Rainbow Dash mommy, she isn't afraid of anything!"~
~"Thank you sweetie I'll remember that"~
The smaller of the creatures went back into it's cottage and the larger one slid the door closed.
She definitely did not have the same aura of excitement about her as the little one, in fact Rainbow Dash thought she seemed rather frightened.
~"Go away! Shoo!"~ it said while waving her arms towards Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow leapt into the air and hovered back a few feet away from the creature.
"Hey, what's your problem?" Dash asked annoyed and confused by the creature's sudden anger.
~"I mean it you better get out of here!"~ it yelled at her.
"What is wrong with you? I'm not here to hurt you I'm just here to investigate for a friend of mine, that's all I swear"
The creature began looking around until it picked up what Rainbow assumed was a rake which it then began to hold in a defensive posture.
~"Mommy don't hurt Rainbow Dash!"~
~"Sweetie you need to stay inside this is a strange animal and it might be dangerous"~
Rainbow reached out with her front hoof in a gesture of friendship "Hey come on take it easy, there's no need for this can't we all just relax and-" but before Rainbow could even finish talking the creature turned back towards Rainbow Dash and jabbed the rake towards her.
She nimbly dodged out of the way of the creature's strike. "Fine if you don't want to act civil then I'm outta here." Rainbow Dash took off and flew back towards Ponyville. 'Jeez what was that all about' Dash thought
* * *
As Sharon watched the brightly colored horse thing fly away she lowered the rake to the ground and let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"What was that thing?"
"I told you mommy, it was Rainbow Dash!"
"Sure it was sweetie, I'm just glad that you're alright" She said with a sigh while reaching down to give her daughter a hug.
"Of course I'm fine mommy, why wouldn't I be?" she asked innocently.
For her daughter's sake Sharon hoped that she was right. She wondered if this day could get any stranger.
* * *
"This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger," said Jasmine as she stared out the window of Forrest's truck.
"It is rather strange to say the least, no power, no satellite signal, and no utilities like plumbing or heating," said Barry.
"It's not even all that which concerns me most, it's where are we and how did we get here?"
"Well that's what we're trying to find out by going on this little adventure isn't it?" Asked Forrest without taking his eyes off of the landscape in front of him.
"You got to admit that it is rather beautiful," said Barry.
Forrest only grunted in response. As Isiah stared out the window at the passing scenery he began to get the strangest feeling about the area. It seemed oddly familair to him and he had no idea why. He decided to voice his feelings.
"Does anyone else feel like they've seen this place before?"
Everyone looked at him and shook their heads. "No I can't say that I do. Why does this place seem familiar to you?" asked Barry.
"I'm not sure, I don't remember where or why this place feels familiar, but I'm getting a vague sense of Déjà vu."
Austin looked outside once more and slowly said "I'm starting to feel it too, it's like the feeling you get right after waking up from a dream and you try to remember it and all you get are like really fuzzy images and not a whole lot of details, man that's kinda spooky."
"So do you know where we are or not?" asked Jasmine.
"I can't really say I do either, sorry."
Jasmine stared at him blankly clearly not impressed by his uncertainty. Austin just shrugged and returned to staring out the window.
"What's that up there?" asked Forrest.
"What where? I don't see anything."
Barry looked out the window "I can just make something out right over that hill, it looks like a town."
"What? Where? Let me see!" Jasmine said unbuckling her seat belt and moving up into the front of the truck.
"See right over there just over that hill," Barry said pointing.
"I see it! I see it! Yes, civilization, finally we can get some answers about what the hell is going on."
Isaiah squinted and was just able to make out the beginnings of a town over the hill.
Everyone began to stare ahead in silent excitement over the prospect of getting help and answers from other people. Forrest sped up a little an the steadily got closer and closer to the town. When they were about halfway to the town Austin suddenly gasped.
"Holy shit!" he exclaimed.
"What, what is it? Is everything alright?" Jasmine asked.
Austin ignored her and turned to Isaiah and grabbed his shoulders "Dude, look do you see it, do you see where we fucking are!" He practically screamed his voice sounding very cheerful.
Isaiah looked at the town. It did appear rather strange for an american town. Most of the houses seemed to have thatched roofs and the streets seemed to be made of cobblestone, there was even a giant oak tree that seemed-
"Oh my god. No way." Isaiah said in disbelief finally recognizing the town and why this place felt so familiar.
"Aw yeah he sees it now!" Austin squealed in delight practically jumping up and down in excitement.
"Would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" Forrest asked.
But Isaiah could do nothing but sit in dumbfounded amazement, for just over the hill was Ponyville.
* * *
Twilight Sparkle was pacing around her library anxiously. Where was Rainbow Dash? She should have been back by now. her pacing was interrupted by a knock at the door.
She raced to the door, eager to hear what rainbow dash had discovered from her fly over the area outside of the everfree. However, when she opened the door she was greeted by Fluttershy, not Rainbow Dash.
"Oh, hey Fluttershy, have you seen Rainbow Dash?"
"Oh, um no I haven't but, um Twilight I think you may need to come see this,"
"See what?"
"Well, there seems to be a large creature, that has wandered into ponyville. It was making a very loud roar and belching out some nasty smoke. I tried to calm it down, but it didn't seem to listen so I came to get you. It stopped just outside of town,"
"Alright let's go, Spike!"
"Yes?" Spike asked.
"Stay here in case Rainbow Dash comes back while I'm gone."
"You got it Twilight," Spike said giving a little salute.
And with that Twilight and Fluttershy took off down the street towards the edge of Ponyville. Twilight wondered if this day could get any stranger. When they reached the edge of town Twilight saw the creature that Fluttershy had been talking about. It was about as tall as Princess Celestia and about as wide across as three or maybe even four full grown stallions. It was a dark green in color and had a a semi transparent front. Twilight thought she saw movement from inside. Without warning four panels along the side of the 'creature' opened outward and five new creatures climbed out.
They were of varying heights but they were all taller than herself, and they were mostly hairless except for their manes which had varying lengths and colors. Their skin seemed to be various shades of white to tan, with the exception of the long haired creature whose skin was darker than the rest. They had long spindly legs and arms, the arms seemed to end in claw like appendages similar to spike's only not as sharp looking. Needless to say Twilight had never seen anything like them. not knowing what else to do Twilight cleared her throat and stepped forward with a smile and an air of confidence.
"Hello my name is Twilight Sparkle and on behalf of everpony here in Ponyville I would like to welcome you to Equestria!"