Author's Note: Please note that this is not the final version. This will be subject to change at any time, as I'm working in collaboration with another writer named CrystalSeeker, and he intends to input his own OC(s) into this story.
"Come on, Twilight! This is ridiculous! Can't this wait until tomorrow??" Spike complained.
Twilight Sparkle whipped her head to glare at her assistant. She had been working all day and now through the night trying to figure out something. She sighed. "Spike, we've been through this a hundred times: Whatever this thing says, we have to know. It just might be monumental."
Said object was floating before them outside on a hill. It was very simple, really. Just gray metal with a weird line that ran across its side that emitted a soft orange light.
But what it extraordinary was it composition: made from an unknown, crystalline-like metal that was unbelievably durable: Spells to determine its age put it at over 100,000 years old, yet it showed no signs of its age at all. It was exactly four hooves wide, six hooves tall, and half a hoof in thickness. A series of strange symbols were meticulously carved onto one face. They were arranged so similarly to Equestrian that Twilight was certain it had to be message of some sort.
But who? Who would use so much of a precious metal just to write a simple message on it? What did it say? Why was it here?
Twilight and Spike had been trying to find the answers to those questions, but it was the middle of the night and they'd made no progress.
Spike huffed in irritation. "Look, I know how much you're interested in this obviously, but why drag me into this?"
"Why do you think, Spike!?" Twilight retorted. "The object, whatever it is, responds better to your touch."
Twilight ignored him and looked back at the object. It just continued floating there, almost tauntingly. She gritted her teeth in frustration. This thing just didn't seem to want to give up its secrets easily whatsoever. For a while, she just stared at it menacingly until she finally lowered her horn and shot a magenta beam at it.
A sudden wavex pulsed from the object with great force, blowing Twilight off her hooves and slamming into Spike. They hit the ground with a loud WHUMP. Twilight's laser wasn't so lucky; it fizzled out upon contact with the orange field.
Twilight was dazed from the impact. She shook it off and scrambled back onto her hooves. She turned around and helped Spike up with her magic. The poor dragon's eyes were rolling around in his eyes and stars circled around his head. Other than that, he was fine.
Twilight gazed back at the object and gasped at the spectacle before them.
The object's glow had intensified. Without warning, the thing fractured into a multitude of smaller pieces.
But they didn't fall to the ground. Instead, they just hung there, suspended in the air and all connected by thin thread the same orange glow. But that light seemed strange...almost as if it was...SOLID?!
Twilight recoiled in shock at the revelation. There was no doubt, these pieces were being held in place by solid light.
Then they started moving. The pieces began to arrange themselves in mid-air, forming two strange shapes. Twilight watched as the fragments connected to each other like a puzzle until a pair of large oblong objects floated in the tablet's place. The objects were about four hooves away from each other stood straight up, but jerked inwards about halfway up their length. A strip of something else glowed a light blue on the inside of the angled halves of each.
Suddenly, four bolts of lightning lanced out from the objects and converged onto one point. Once they met, a ripple like a stone dropped in water emerged from that point and flowed outward. When the disturbance in the air hit the floating pylons, dots of blue energy flared into existence. The dots flew in every direction, creating a spiral shape outlined by the ripples At the center of it all, a little blue ball expanded outward toward the pylons. The whole thing bloomed bigger, and the colors darkened. In seconds, a swirling disc of black and blue churned in an endless circle between the pylons.
It's some sort of portal. Twilight realized. The disc slowly began to pick up speed. Suddenly a piercing shriek of agony erupted from the portal, causing Twilight and Spike to cover their ears. It lanced through the night air, shattering the haze of peace and quiet for a few seconds before it was silenced.
The portal then spat out a large, bipedal creature, sending it flying through the air. The creature yelled and flailed its arms and legs in a futile attempt to do something. It tumbled ungracefully down the hillside and came to stop at the base.
A second, more powerful wave erupted from the portal, this time a pure-white hue. At the same time, all of the light that the portal and the pylons emitted snapped off and they all disappeared, plunging Twilight, and Spike into darkness once again.
The former wasted no time rushing over to the edge of the hill and looked down at the creature. It just stayed where it was, unmoving.
"Spike! Come here!" Twilight called to him. Her voice snapped the purple dragon out of his daze, and he hurried to join her. They both stared in shock at the being.
It was garbed in tattered dark-blue cloth on its upper body, tan-colored cloth on its lower body, a jagged and beaten large wooden staff strapped to its back, and a silver belt around its waist. Sprouting from its lower back was a tail that looked not unlike a monkey's. On the creature's seemingly-deformed head were a pair of red opaque sunglasses.
What shocked Twilight the most was its terrible condition: The creature looked bloody and beaten, with several nasty-looking bruises adorning its body.
Without hesitation, the unicorn and teen dragon looked at each other and nodded before racing down from the hilltop down to the unconscious being. She examined it more closely while Spike stayed back, nervously waiting for what she would do afterwards.
The more Twilight scrutinized, the more her expression became grim. Though she was no doctor by any means, she could tell that it was in bad shape; the wounds looked even worse up close, there was a lot of lacerations all over, and they were bleeding profusely. But she suspected that there might be some internal damage as well.
Fortunately, the General Hospital wasn't very far to where the two currently were. Twilight turned to Spike and told him: "Run to the General Hospital as fast as you can. Wait outside until you see me coming, then go inside and tell them that a critically-wounded creature is on its way and needs immediate medical help."
"But what about you, Twi?"
"I'm staying behind for now to stabilize this thing." Twilight answered. "Now go! We don't have much time."
Spike nodded and sprinted off into the distance. Meanwhile, Twilight called up her memorized spells and mentally went through them. She'd learned a couple basic healing spells over the past few months, so she was at least able to keep this being alive to make it to the hospital.
She cast them, one by one, and watched in mild fascination as a few of the cuts and bruises sealed themselves up and disappeared. The deeper and more serious ones were left alone. She then levitated it a couple hooves into the air and took off after Spike. As she ran, a thought made her look up to the starry night sky and wonder: Where did it come from?