The Cylinder

Chapter 3

The Cylinder

The sonic boom that night woke everypony up in nearby Ponyville. Anyone from a distance from the town could easily of heard a chorus of Groans from being woken up so late. And it was fairly easy to say that none of the ponies were quite happy of being broken out of their little dreams.

"It's two o'clock in the morning!"

"We're all trying to sleep here!"

"Wait 'till I get my hooves on the pony responsible!"

Meanwhile away from Ponyville, nearby the Everfree forest at Fluttershy's home, the Elements of Harmony groaned of being awaking by the loud sound. The six of them (including Spike) had all been staying over for the night, and one furious looking Applejack had an idea of who might've been responsible.

"What is she playin' at?" She growled through her teeth as she stomped over to Rainbow Dash's bed in semi-darkness. Much to her surprise, the cyan Pegasus was enjoying her golden slumbers. That couldn't be right. So she gave Dash a hard shake to wake her up.

"W-what?" She stuttered as Applejack woke her up. She looked up at the Orange earth pony who's eyes were narrowed at looking at her. "What'd you want AJ?" She asked crossly as she sat up in bed crossing her arms.

Applejack stared crossly at her. "Will stop performin' Sonic Rainbooms at this time? Why would you wanna wake up all of Ponyville?"

Rainbow Dash blinked dumbfounded at what her friend was trying to say. "What you talking about? I was fast asleep dreaming of joining the Wonder—"

She was cut short when a large explosion followed from what seem like a few miles away, rocked the house for a moment and knocking everything about. Applejack and Rainbow Dash remained silent looking around wondering just what had happened.

"…Ok, I can assure you that wasn't me!" Rainbow Dash concluded quickly, looking a bit shocked herself.

Just then Twilight entered the room with a lit candle that was being levitated by her magic. "Is every pony alright?" She asked with dark rings just below her eyes.

"I was alright 'till she woke me up!" Rainbow Dash pointed at Applejack.

Applejack though rolled her eyes at Dash before looking over at Twilight. "How's the rest doin'?"

"Fluttershy's gone outside to check on her animals," Twilight informed. "By Celestia I've never seen her go fast before for anything."

Dash and AJ stared at each other at the thought of Fluttershy being a blur of yellow and pink...so not like the timid Pegasus to do that.

Just then Pinkie Pie, Rarity and a very sleepy looking Spike entered the room, half tired and half confused at what had occurred. "What fool in the right mind does these things at this time?" Rarity asked them angrily, who had been enjoying a wonderful sleep herself.

"I don't know you guys," Pinkie piped in whilst yawning, "But my Pinkie sense was kinda going off just before that boom sound, and again before that explosion."

They all looked at the pink Earth pony.

"Anything else that might happen?" Spike asked, thinking another strange thing might happen.

Pinkie remained silent for a moment waiting for something to happen. But nothing happened "Nope, nothing here. Looks like it's stopped."

They then all chatted among each other at wondering what might have happened, little did any of them knew was that what had really gone on would be out of their minds.

Finally, Fluttershy joined them as they were carrying on their conversations. "Sorry about that," She said in her shy voice. "They were all so scared at what happened just now."

Then an idea suddenly came into Rainbow Dash's head. "Hey Fluttershy, did you see anything…well, anything strange out there?"

"Not really," the yellow Pegasus replied shaking her head," Though I thought I saw a greenish line of smoke in the sky, with a hissing noise as it fell from the sky."

Silence fell upon the group after what Fluttershy said. It seemed to last for a while until Twilight broke the silence. "…Green...what?" She said, almost too confused at what had been said.

Then before Fluttershy had the chance to say anything, the rest charged past Fluttershy towards the front door to see what was going on. As they charged outside (with Fluttershy taking up the rear) they craned their heads up towards to sky trying to see the green light. Much to their amazement, there it was.

They could only gasp or rub their eyes at the sight. From what seem like to be coming far into the sky that went down behind them towards what seem like the Everfree forest, a long almost perfect line of bright misty green light.

"Is…is that some new firework?" Pinkie asked, still staring in amazement at the sight.

"It can't be," Twilight said looking back towards where the line ended at the forest. "Not even Luna would pull a trick like that."

No pony knew what to do exactly. They couldn't exactly wait until morning as by then all of the residents of Ponyville would turn up and see for themselves what had happened. Yet there was still that fear factor for either of them to check it out, especially as it was near the Everfree forest, a place that you and I will know that nopony would like to go in, unless you had a death wish.

"Well?" Yawned Spike. "What'd we do then?"

"One of us must go and see what it is and report back," Rarity answered moving a bit of her mane out of her eyes.

Suddenly Applejack piped in. "That's it! I'd say send Dash over and see for herself what's goin' on as she maybe was the one who woke us up."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "How can you be so sure you can point the hoof on me?"

Quickly the others had to pull the two ponies back incase it was going to break into an big argument or a fight.

"Alright you two!" Twilight shouted at them to get their attention, which they stopped as they turned to look at her. "Because you two are the more…let's say, less tired of us, I'd say the two of you go and see what's happened."

The others agreed without battering an eyelash, leaving Rainbow Dash and AJ starring at their friends and then looking back at each other in annoyance of either of them getting each other into this situation.

"Why me?" Rainbow Dash muttered to herself as she cast a glare over at Applejack.

XXX

Thankfully for them, The green line (now starting to break and fade away) led towards the outskirts of the forest, not in to the forest, so they could easily breath a sigh of relive not having to go in there. Nevertheless there still was an uneasy atmosphere towards each other. They never spoke once to each other for the last ten minutes as they headed closer to the location.

As Rainbow Dash was flying overhead just above AJ, she could see further on, and with that said, she saw where the green light ended. She stopped and hovered in amazement.

"Celestia above," Rainbow Dash gasped as her eyes widened.

"You see it? What is it?" Applejack asked looking up at her.

Without another word, Rainbow Dash quickly sped off to the sight, with Applejack racing closely behind. They stopped when they finally reached the edge of what seem to be a large crater nearby the forest with small fires nearby, helping illuminate the sight before them. Though it wasn't the size of the crater that made their jaws drop.

Looking up, a large silver like cylinder (being larger than a house to AJ and RD's point of view) with a round cone on the end, stretched up from the bottom of the deep hole in the ground.

"W-what is…that?" Applejack stuttered and rubbed her eyes to make sure what she was seeing was true. It was unlike anything she had seen in Equestria in her life.

"It's…I don't know..." Rainbow Dash replied, frozen still at the sight before her, all her fearlessness seemed to have vanished from her at this point.

Suddenly they both jumped back in fright as it started hissing green smoke from a small gap below the cone part of the cylinder. With that happening, the cone began to slowly rotate and unscrew itself. Then Rainbow Dash thought she could hear sounds from the inside.

"There's somepony inside there!" She cried and rushed in to assist. But before Applejack could say anything to stop the cyan Pegasus from getting closer, the intense heat of the giant object stopped her going further before she could burn herself on the hot metal.

"C'mon, Dash!" Cried Applejack. "We gotta get back to the others quick!"

With one final look at the cylinder, the blue Pegasus followed her friend behind. She felt pretty bad of not helping whoever was inside. Though she, many others and you and I my dear reader, would soon find out what was inside this strange object…