Prologue: Mustangs and Magic
Gavin sighed as the truck came to stop outside Studio 5, the new Roosterteeth offices peppered with puddles outside from the previous night's cloudburst. Stepping out, he began walking to the front door, with Geoff following behind him.
"Look," Geoff continued. "All I'm trying to say is, if you're gonna have your own place, you should probably learn how to drive. 'Cuz I'm sure as hell not driving you anymore once you're outta my place."
Gavin shook his head at his boss, opening the door and half-holding it for Geoff. "I just can't be bothered with it." Gavin repeated, glancing around the still-unfamiliar offices. "I mean, Ray gets to work just fine without a car, so I don't see how I can't."
"He needs to learn how to drive too. It's a basic thing."
Gavin sighed once more, opening the door to the Achievement Hunter office for Geoff, then following him in. "I'm not going to a driving school. I'm done with learning things in rooms."
Booting his machines up, Geoff chuckled. "We could find a crappy car for you to practice on. Maybe Ray could join you too."
"Fine, whatever." Gavin responded, "Hey, where's Jack?" As soon as he finished that sentence, he heard the door to the office open. "Ah, never mind. Where were you, Jack?" He asked, not even bothering to turn around.
"Jack? Is he supposed to be here this early?" A different voice responded, one much younger and less baritone than that of the aforementioned Jack Pattillo.
Geoff turned around, surprised to see a very short man at the door. "Ray?" Geoff asked, almost sure he was hallucinating. "Since when did you get to work so early?"
Ray shrugged, shoving his phone in his pocket and beelining to his desk, pressing the power button on his Xbox One. "You know, I don't like staying anywhere if the internet's out."
Gavin turned in his chair, leaning back. "Storm knock out your power?" He inquired. Ray nodded. "That sucks man. But at least you don't have to deal with Geoff hounding you about doing something neither of us care about."
Geoff giggled, to which Ray quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah," Geoff began. "He really doesn't want to drive. I don't see why he doesn't even want to learn on a crappy starter car."
Ray chuckled as Gavin slammed his nose on his desk. "C'mon Gavin." Ray insisted, jabbing Gavin in the shoulder. "Come on down!" He paused awkwardly. "You know, Price is Right? Bob Barker?"
As Gavin groaned in annoyance, Geoff grinned. "I wouldn't even spend two hundred bucks on a car for him to drive, or you for that matter. You should really both learn on it. X-Ray and Vav right?" He broke out laughing as Ray shook his head.
"You know what?" Ray said with a smile. "You'd be spending money on me and Gavin, and Gavin would be pissed off. Let's do it, Geoff!" Ray whipped out his iPhone and began typing into it incredibly quickly.
"What are you doing?" Geoff questioned, walking over to Ray.
"Going onto Craigslist. If I find a car for two hundred smackaroos, you're buying that shit."
Geoff frowned, the plan obviously backfiring a little bit. "You do realize anything at that price isn't running, right?" He asked nervously, looking along at the phone.
Ray shrugged, scrolling quickly through the classifieds. It only took a few seconds before he laughed triumphantly, showing Geoff his phone.
"Check it out! 1961 Ford Mustang!" He beamed, as Geoff looked at the ad.
"Dude, the ad just says 'Runs. I don't want it.'" Geoff looked at Ray with a dubious expression. "Does that sound like a working car to you?" Ray folded his arms, grinning.
"You said two hundred bucks for a car. Hold up to your promise, boss!" Ray chuckled, a little nervously and mostly humorously. Amazingly, Geoff pulled out his own phone and began dialing the number.
"This is so coming out of your paycheck." He muttered as he pressed the dial button. At that moment, Jack arrived at the office, confused to see Geoff with two phones, Gavin seemingly sleeping, and most of all, Ray.
"What the hell is g-" The bearded Gent was shushed mid-sentence by Geoff, who was staring at a wall.
"Hey is this uh..." Geoff looked down at Ray's phone. "Matt..Jackal?" Ray chuckled as Geoff sat down on the couch in front of the green screen. "Yeah, this is Geoff Ramsey. Are you really selling your '61 Mustang for two hundred bucks?...And it works?...Are you sure about that? 'Cuz I'm gonna get a refund if it doesn't...Where am I? Well I'm at Studio 5 in Austin, but my...wait don't just...hello?" Geoff looked at his phone before shoving it in his pocket, tossing Ray his phone. "Well, that crazy asshole's coming here with the stupid car."
Ray fumbled his phone for a second before catching it, and was about to say something before Gavin walked up to the group of gamers. "Didn't you tell him you don't live here?" He asked, having given up on avoiding driving now that there appeared to be a car on its way.
Geoff sighed. "I tried dude. He just babbled on about how he wanted to get rid of the car and that he'd be here in-"
"Geoff?" A voice asked from the door. Geoff turned around to see Burnie with an incredulous look on his face. "There's some guy out front saying he sold you a car. I told him to fuck off but he just kept insisting on me checking with you."
"How the fuck..." Geoff trailed off for a few seconds before shaking his head, standing up from the couch and motioning with his hand. "Gavin, Ray, c'mon. Let's go check this stupid thing out." The two Lads followed him out towards the front of the offices, leaving just Jack and Burnie in the room.
"So...what's up Jack?"
Geoff pushed open the front door of the Roosterteeth offices, surprised to see a lavender Ford Mustang in near-perfect condition on a trailer hitched to a Chevrolet pickup. Standing in front of the truck was a man in his mid-thirties, with unkempt hair and a rapidly tapping foot. "Uhhh...Matt Jackal?" Geoff asked nervously.
The man in front of the pickup truck looked up and approched the trio of men quickly. "Hey, you got the two hundred?" He asked quickly. Ray chuckled, leaning over to Gavin.
"I think we picked up a fuckin' weirdo." He whispered to Gavin, who was holding back his own giggles at Geoff's misfortune.
Shaking his head, Geoff pulled out two hundred-dollar bills from his wallet warily, eyeing Matt. "Well yeah, but I have-" He never had the chance to finish his sentence. Matt Jackal swiped the money from Geoff's hand, hurriedly unhitching the trailer and driving off in his truck while blabbing about how grateful he was to have the car off his hands. Geoff simply stood in the same position, staring at where the truck used to be, slack-jawed. "Did...did he...just...huh?"
Behind him, Ray and Gavin were busy laughing their asses off, earning a very hard glare from Geoff. "Come on you dimwits, let's see if this thing even works." He said, rolling the car off the trailer by himself. Gavin calmed himself down mostly, while Ray couldn't resist making a comment.
"Hey Gavin, do you think this car is..." Ray paused for dramatic effect, holding back his laughter. "Cursed?" The two Lads stared at each other for a moment before busting out in another bout of laughter that lasted for about a minute. By the time they'd calmed themselves down, Geoff had gotten the car off the trailer. Gavin and Ray walked up to the car to inspect it, taking note of its shiny lavender paint job.
"I'm... surprised, really." Gavin stated, popping open the passenger-side door and taking a seat inside it. "This thing looks tippity-top."
"Yeah," Ray added, hesitating a moment before opening the driver-side door and sliding in. "I can't believe this."
Gavin glanced at Ray, then to Geoff, who was outside of the car. "Ray, do you think we should see if it starts?" Gavin asked, turning back to stare at Ray.
Ray rolled his eyes. "No, we should just let this thing sit here forever." He followed the sarcastic remark by turning the key. The car made exactly the sound you'd expect- the stuttering attempt of the ignition. Humiliated after a few minutes of trying (which was accompanied by maniacal laughter from Geoff), Ray got out of the car, glaring at Geoff. "What're you laughing about? It's your money!"
Geoff wiped the tears away from his face, grinning. "Yeah, but seeing you get so excited about this thing is sooo worth it."
Ray frowned. "Can you give us a jump?"
Geoff sighed, still grinning. "Yeah, sure buddy, just let me pull my truck over here." He responded, turning on his own pickup and pulling it up to the Mustang. Reaching into the backseat as he got out and turned the car off, he grabbed the jump leads and tossed one end to Ray. "The red clamp goes on the positive end. Make sure you get that right."
Ray caught the two cables out of the air and nodded. "Right, easy." He popped the hood on the lavender car and inspected the battery. "Fuck, I can't tell which one is which..." He considered asking Geoff for help, but quickly decided against it. "Fuck it. Yolo, right?" He attached the cables and looked at Geoff. "You ready?" On Geoff's nod, Ray got into the car and readied himself. As he heard Geoff start up his truck, he silently hoped to himself that he would blow up Gavin, then turned the key. As he turned the key, the car roared to life. "WOO!" Ray cheered, revving the engine. Gavin tapped him on the shoulder.
"Ray..." Gavin started, pointing to the floor of the car. "What the hell is that?"
Ray looked down at the floor of the car, which was glowing white. Before he could give any guesses, the rest of the car was engulfed in the white light and disappeared without a sound. Geoff scrambled out of his truck, staring in disbelief at where the car used to be. The only thing remaining were the jump leads and a wet spot on the ground from a leak in the car. Geoff sat down on the curb, practically catatonic.
"What the fuck just happened?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in an entirely different place, a purple-maned alicorn was looking through stacks upon stacks of books. With each failed search for what she was looking for, she placed the book to her side in a stack of books that had been no help to her.
Rubbing her eyes, she looked outside to see that the sun was beginning to come up. With a groan, she set down the book she had just looked in on the stack of books that hadn't helped and slowly went to wake up Spike.
She shook Spike gently, feeling a pang of guilt as the dragon groaned in discomfort. "Spike, let's wake up for now...I promise you can go back to sleep soon, but you should really eat something."
Spike mumbled something unintelligable as he tried to stand up in his bed. Just before he fell over from dizziness, a purple glow surrounded him, lifting him onto Twilight's back. As she set him down on her back, she slowly trotted down the stairs, careful not to cause any more discomfort to the baby dragon.
Spike had been sick for about a week, and no matter how hard Twilight Sparkle had searched, she couldn't find anything in any of her books that would tell her what sickness Spike had been feeling, much less a cure for it. Not even Zecora had been able to help with his condition.
Twilight sighed as she set Spike down on her couch, leaving him to rest while she went to find some easy food for him. As she rummaged through her refrigerator for an apple to give Spike, she heard him groan in pain from the living room. Grabbing an apple, she hastily galloped back into the room.
Spike was curled up in a tight, purple ball, looking like he wss about to throw up. Twilight set the apple on the table next to the couch and trotted to her writing desk, levitating a quill and a blank scroll onto it. Dipping the quill in a bottle of ink, she began to write, all while keeping an eye on the pained dragon.
Dear Princess Celestia,
It's been a week now since Spike became curiously sick. I've looked through every book in my library three times and haven't found what he could possibly be suffering from. Nopony else has had any answers for me either, not even our friend Zecora. I've been wondering if it has anything to with the-
Twilight turned around as she heard a particularly painful-sounding yelp from Spike. She set down her quill and rushed to his side, levitating over a bucket in case he were to vomit.
As she did, however, Spike let out a large belch accompanied by a very large ball of flame. She shouted in surprise as a lavender-colored object much larger than a pony or a letter shot out of Spike's mouth like an arrow. It smashed into a bookshelf before landing on the ground, taking up most of the foyer space.
Twilight rushed to Spike's side, concerned for his health. "Spike! Spike! Are you okay?! What just happened?!"
Spike rubbed his eyes stealing a glance at the object before blinking up at Twilight. "I-I'm totally fine!" He exclaimed, amazed that he actually did feel normal. "I feel, like way better! But..." He trailed off, looking at the object in the middle of the library.
Twilight followed his gaze, staring at the wheeled...thing that had smashed her writing desk and bookshelves behind it to pieces.
"But what in Equestria was that?"
