Where We Come From

Chapter 2 A Simple Wish...

Perspective: Stephanie Allen

I tip toe my way out to the living room to check on Grandma. Just like I left her, asleep with a warmed up diet cola in her hand. With a slight giggle I make my way to the door and sneak out.

Its not that I hate being at Grandmas, I love my grandma. She's just really boring! Though that's not entirely her fault either. Manton isn't a very big town. It is, but it isn't. Its... well, I guess for a farming town its pretty big. It nothing like Anaheim at least; I don't think half the people here have even seen the ocean. I take my bike down the bumpy road and pedal as quickly as possible, trying to get to my secret place on the farm.

I love the night sky here in Manton. You don't get all of the planes and satellites and stuff here. Just you, and the sky. As I ride down the dirt rode I slow down as one of the stars begins to shine brighter and brighter. IT MUST BE A SHOOTING STAR! OK OK OK OK OK, I have to make a wish. Hmm... what should I wish for? Maybe for Mom and Dad to stop yelling at night, maybe then I can get some sleep.

Naw.

How about for the new game thing I saw at the store?

Meh.

I stare up to the star and think about what I want most of all. Something that I don't have and wont be able to get without this stars help. I guess the logical thing would be to wish for more wishes... naw. Santa would probably get mad over that. Hmmm....

"I wish... for a friend." I whisper as I look up and close my eyes.

KROOOOOOOMM

I fall back off my bike as a massive blue beam crashes into the forest before me. It holds steady for a bit before it just... ends; leaving a resounding echo through the night.

"THIS MUST BE MY FRIEND! THANK YOU STAR!" I yell in excitement as I jump back to my feet and pick up my bike. I get pedaling down the road as quickly as possible, getting to the edge of the forest in a matter of minutes. I pause for a second as I peer into the dark woods. Grandma says there are bad things in there, and that I shouldn't go in alone; especially at night.

But how often does a star grant you a wish? No, I'm going to be a big girl and make my way to... whatever my star brought me. With my mind set, I push the pedal down and ride into the dark wooded area.

I pedal at a slow pace as I keep my eyes open for anything that could live here. With every cool breeze I twist around, trying to find out what would make that rustling noise. I hate scary things. Why would anyone want to do something just to scream and run away. It doesn't make any sense to me. I try to pick up the pace, but come to a stop when I realize something.

I have no clue where the light even landed.

In a panic I begin to race forward, trying to get to wherever I was trying to get to as quickly as possible. I hear a loud snap off in the distance and let out a small scream before hitting something. I fly forward, going over the handle bars and right above a small log. I come to a slide and lay there for a moment, feeling my body ache from the rough landing. I hate falling off my bike. More so then how often it happens.

With a light groan I pick myself up and walk back to my bike... only to drop to my knees at the site. The front wheel has bent completely to the left, making the bike completely useless.

Of course it breaks, something always goes completely wrong when I break the rules. That's the entire reason I'm at Grandmas! I always break the rules and get caught. I don't mean to do bad things... I just...

*SNAP*

My heart skips a beat as something nearby breaks a stick. I try to keep my breathing down as I jump behind the log and lay low. Hopefully whatever is out there won't notice me and just go on its way.

What if it's my wish though? If I just hide here it may leave me, and I'll be alone...

With a final sigh I lift myself up and look around. With nothing directly near me I stand up and inspect the area around me closer. Off to the left of the trail there seems to be some fog growing. Either that's where the monsters come from or that's where my wish is.

Before I begin my trek through the woods, I remove my seat and wield it with both hands to fight off anything that may come after me. Step after step I keep my head on a swivel; looking for anything that could be a potential threat or wish.

*SNAP*

"Who's there?" I ask as I turn around. I walk backwards slowly as I hear another loud snap somewhere in the distance. "I'm warning you, I have a bicycle seat and I'm not afraid to use-AAAAAHH!" I yell as the ground disappears behind me. I fall flat on my back and quickly scramble to get my seat. I grab it and move to run off, when I find my wish.

"A pony?" I ask aloud as I stand up and walk around the sleeping form. It has a light teal coat with bushy light yellow hair. I take my seat and poke its face with the metal end a few times, checking to see if it'll do anything.

Nothing happened.

I use the seat again to poke at its wings, keeping as much distance between us as possible.

Again, nothing happened.

I set the seat down and sit beside its face. As slowly as possible, I bring my hand up and pet it across its head. When I near its forehead I find a short teal horn sticking out. Its a... unicorn... pegasus... pony. Is this what my wish brought me? A pegasus/unicorn pony?

I jump to my feet when I hear the snap again. Whatever's out there is getting close. I eye the pony a bit, trying guess his weight, before attempting to lift it up... its a boy. Kind of gross but whatever; I'm not going to argue with what the stars gave me. I try lifting him up, but find him pretty heavy. I end up giving him a piggy back ride before taking him out of the small crater.

I walk at a quick pace as I try to find my way out of the darkness. Thanks to the thick tree cover I can't really see where I'm going. A couple of times I trip over rocks or downed branches; but I never drop my pony...

THUD

Still didn't drop him. I lay there for a moment, facing the ground, as I try to trace my steps back home-

THUD-THUD THUD-THUD THUD-THUD

I roll over and throw myself on top of the pony as a horse jumps over head and slides to a stop before me. I wont let anyone take my little pony! He's my wish, I'll take care of-

"STEPHANIE ALLEN!" Oh no.....

--o-0-o--

Perspective: Rose Cassaway

Twenty Minutes Prior

With an annoyed sigh I walk old Nelly to her stall and take her to the trough. After a long day of riding around the farm she eagerly begins to take in gulps of water, alloying me to remove her saddle. I pat her side a bit before taking the saddle to its rack and locking up her pen.

Working the farm alone is hard work, but I manage it. I grow what I can and make the best with what I can do by myself. I don't need anyone's help; I've come this far without it. Others only slow me down anyway. Jonathan can go fuck himself for all I care.

I shut the lights off in the barn before walking off for home; rubbing my tired muscles along the way. I'm just going to go inside, heat up that left over chicken, and go to bed-

KROOOOOOOMM

"WHAT IN THE HELL!" I yell as a massive beam of blue light comes crashing down, hitting right in the middle of the pine forest. All of the horses begin to whinny and buck as the light quickly disappears. I stand there, dazed, until I begin to run towards the house. A lightning strike without clouds, somethings going on. But I don't care about that all too much. I just want to make sure that my crops don't burn down.

I burst through the door and make a bee line to the phone in the kitchen, being the closest one. I quickly dial three numbers and wait for the person on the other end to pick up, tapping my foot impatiently.

"911 what's your emergency?" The operator asks.

"My name is Rose Cassaway, what looked like a bolt of lightning just struck near my house-"

"A.... bolt of lightning?" She repeats. "Is there a fire?"

"Not that I'm aware of. The odd part though is that there isn't a single cloud in the sky right now. No planes. Nothing out here to spark it." I glance outside quickly to check if a fire has started by now. It hasn't, but I still don't trust it.

"Can I have your address please?"

"I'm at the Cassaway Farm on 1200 Castle drive, Manton California-"

"Right. We're sending someone out there to investigate. If anything changes please notify us. Stay indoors and-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. Thanks." I say before slamming the phone back onto the receiver. Useless as usual. I pace around the kitchen a bit before deciding to take matters into my own hands. I march right back over to the barn and begin to saddle up Cobalt. He's a bit more sturdy then the rest, which will come in handy in case of any fires.

"LETS GO!" I yell as we gallop out of the barn. With my left hand I hold onto the reins while I hold onto a shovel with my right. Hopefully if there is a fire it won't be too big to fight on my own. I don't want a bunch of fire fighters driving through my fields.

We burst through the tree line with great speed as we head north, looking for any lights or smoke. Nothings yet, that's a good sign, maybe I just imagined it. It was fairly close to the barn, if there was any fires I think I would of found it by now. In a split second I spot a little blonde girl before me. I instictively kick Cobalt in the ribs and brace for him to leap over the idiot.

"STEPHANIE ALLEN!" I yell as Cobalt slides to a halt before the little blonde girl. She jumps over something and stares up at me, scared out of her mind. "What in the hell do you think you're doing out here? It's one in the morning!" I yell as I dismount Cobalt and walk up to the little girl.

"I... I..." She stutters as she covers some teal thing. "I wont let you take him!" She yells as she hugs the thing tightly.

"Take who?" I ask as I walk up to her and take a knee. "What are you hiding?"

"He's my wish, I want to keep him!" She yells. I just roll my eyes and yank her off the...

"Oh my god.... what is that?" I ask as I look over the small colorful horse. "Did... did you steal a colt!?"

"NO! I wished on a shooting star and he appeared!"

"Girl, don't be stupid. Where did you get this colt? He doesn't look old enough to away from his..." I begin as I start to look his body over, finding the horn and wings quickly. "What in the hell is this thing?"

"He's my pony! So leave us alone Rose!" She barks at me as she moves back over to hug the unconscious being. I just roll my eyes as I pull her off the creature again. If she wasn't with Abigail I would probably bite her head off for being disrespectful; I'll just let her deal with her later.

"Whatever he is, he probably has a concussion of some kind." I say as I stand and toss him on my shoulder, much to Stephanie's displeasure. "Come on, I'll take you home-"

"Where are you taking my pony?" She asks as I head over to Cobalt.

"Back to the barn. He needs a vet to look him over-"

"I want to come!" She demands, stomping her foot down. I grit my teeth before lifting myself into the saddle and reach down for her, getting her to take my hand eagerly.

"You can come with me to set him in the barn. After that I'm taking you home." I inform her.

"But-"

"No buts. Its past midnight and you have school tomorrow. Now keep quiet and hold the-"

"Pony."

"Right.... pony." I say as I set him in her arms. I'm not entirely sure about this thing being a pony. But whatever it is, I have to at least take it to the barn to be checked out. I'm sure Lynn will be fascinated. I kick Cobalt's sides as I hold Stephanie close, getting him to gallop off through the woods back home.

--o-0-o--

Perspective: Unknown

Ah.... my head. Why does my head hurt so much? What happened? Where am I? I sit up and look around to find myself in a wooden barn. The wall in front of me seems to be a door that slides open while the wall behind me has a window up high. Below the window is a metal tray that has spots of rust all over it. The room smells heavily of hay, thanks to the floors being covered in it. When did I go to a farm? How did I get here?

I sit up and try to think back to what happen prior to this. I can't remember anything. All I know is that I'm really thirsty and that I'm in some wooden room. I don't know how I got here, where I'm from.... what's my name?

All of my thoughts ended the moment the door slide open and two creatures walked inside. I've never seen anything like them before. They walk on two legs and seem to only have manes. Ones really tall and looks fairly old. She had a short brown mane that's tied back and is wearing jeans and a red and white button up shirt. She has some wrinkles and tired light brown eyes. I can't help but feel tense around her. She seems to be mad about something, I hope I didn't do anything wrong...

The other one looks about my age... maybe. She's a bit taller than me and has bushy blonde hair. She's wearing a light blue shorts and a pink top... why are they wearing clothes to begin with? Her light blue eyes dart between me and the other pony in excitement. I wonder if...

"Alright, he's awake. That's a start." The taller one says as she moves to the metal tray behind me. She twists something inside that makes the tray begin to fill with water. "Okay. He has water, now I'm taking you-"

"He has to drink first!" The smaller one pouts as she stomps a foot down. I kind of chuckle at her antics, mainly because she seems to have some weird control over the obviously older one.

"Fine!" The tall one shouts as she pushes me over to the tray. I look up to her before looking down to the water. Licking my lips I dive down and begin to drink to my hearts content. I feel as if I've gone months without a single drop. "Well... I guess you can lead a horse to water." The tall one jokes as she stands up.

"I told-"

SLAM

We all jump a bit as the sound of a door slamming open fills the room. I look back and watch as another one of the two legged people appear. She's old. Much older then the tall one. She's wearing bright neon green pants and a grey sweater that has a green face on it. Her mane, oddly enough, seems to be wrapped in aluminum foil and had two random metal sticks pointing out. She looks around the room a bit before looking down to me and smiling.

"OH GREAT VISITOR FROM BEYOND!" She yells as she runs towards me. I run to a corner and try to distant myself as much as possible as the tall one holds her back. The little one moves in front of me and holds her arms out as she tries to protect me from her as well.

"Barbra! What in the-"

"TAKE ME TO THE GREAT BEYOND! PLEASE! I'll tell you where our leaders are, I can give you anything you desire! Just-"

"BARBRA!" The older one shouts."Get a hold of yourself! It's just-"

"Rose, don't interfere with Inter Galactic Association dealings! A visitor from another planet has come to our humble town and-" She begins but stops when the taller one, Rose I think, begins to push her out of the room.

"Come on. It's time for you to go back to bed." She says as she wrestles the older one, Barbra, out. "Stephanie, come on! You're going home too!"

"Fine." She says before turning back to me. She drops to her knees and pulls me in for a tight hug.

Whoa.

I feel... butterflies. Why are my wings trying to stand up? I've had plenty of hugs before, I think, and they've never felt like this before. What's going on?

"Good night pretty pony." She says as she stands and follows the wrestling older ponies out. I sit there in a daze as I try to comprehend what just happened. I look up and jump to my hooves as I notice that she's leaving the building.

"Good night!" I yell after her as I run to the doorway. They all freeze and look back to me. Was... was that too much? We all stand there for a bit, just staring at each other. I begin to feel my cheeks burn as they continue to stand there, frozen in wrestling pose, eyes on me with their jaws open. "Uh..."

"MY PONY CAN TALK!" Stephanie yells as she jumps up in excitement.

"YES! FIRST CONTACT!" Barbra yells in excitement.

"Oh.... we're in deep shit." Rose says as the other two jump in joy. Did..... did I do something wrong?

--o-0-o--

Perspective: Agent Lewis

"Sir." Agent Thompson says as he offers me a folder. "You won't believe this one." I take it and begin to read it over. Page after page I feel myself begin to get worked up as I slowly stand to my feet. This can't be true... there's... there's just no way.

"Grab your coat!" I yell as I run to the front of my office and grab my jacket. "We're going to Manton."