It fell from the night sky like a meteor, a ball of flame carving an incandescent trail through the night sky.
Only, Princess Luna of Equestria, watching the falling object through a small set of binoculars on a stick, knew that it was not a meteor. She knew where everything in her night sky was, and what everything was. Except this.
It was a metal thing. Teardrop-shaped, even. And as she watched, it extended protrusions, and in a remarkable display of aerial agility for such a large object, fell out of the sky in a controlled manner, the flames of atmospheric friction fading into the darkness.
Luna put the binoculars down, eyes narrowing as the barely-visible object fell towards that town in the middle of Equestria, that town that seemed to attract trouble like a magnet attracted iron filings. She drew a deep breath, and sighed.
Celestia hated being woken up in the middle of the night.
======
It was funny how such a familiar place during the day turned into this terrifying place in the dark.
Something that Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were becoming acquainted with. What had been a fun night spent camping in the clubhouse and telling spooky stories before going to bed had taken a turn for the scary about five minutes ago.
Sweetie Belle, a light sleeper, had been woken up by the sound of a distant explosion about half an hour ago. When nothing else happened, she chalked it up to one of Twilight's experiments going off back in town (as they usually did in the wee hours of the morning, to her neighbors' chagrin) and went back to sleep.
Only to be woken up again by the sounds of something scuffling about outside. Concerned, she'd shaken Applebloom (a heavy sleeper) into something approaching consciousness, and asked if there should be anything moving about out there, like, a pig or something.
Applebloom remarked that pigs didn't sound like something walking on two legs.
The implications of such an observation brought about a frosty silence, broken only by the hollow step of something walking up the ramp to their treehouse. They looked as one at Scootaloo, who had just woken up, and was looking at them blearily.
And so, after a quick breakdown of what was going on and a very rapid vote, Scootaloo found herself creeping towards the doorway, baseball bat in mouth, the designated "go and look at what's outside, alone" pony. A role that they had deduced to be essential in any halfway decent horror film when they went for Film Critic cutie marks, but not a role that Scootaloo was particularly keen on playing.
She got to the door, and it clicked as Sweetie opened it for her, from the safety of her sleeping bag on the other side of the room. It swung open, and Scootaloo froze in horror as the Thing on the other side was revealed.
Standing far too tall to fit through the doorway without bending over, it stood on two legs, framed against the full moon, with it's two forelegs hanging from it's sides like it was built to stand on only two. The head of the beast was featureless and round, with no visible eyes, but Scootaloo could feel the Thing's gaze upon her, and paralyzed by fear, she didn't react when it reached out with a foreleg, and small tentacles on the end spread out to grip her.
Applebloom screamed.
======
Luna and Celestia flew through the cold night air, Celestia nursing a thermos of coffee as she went, looking a little worse for wear.
"I have to be here, why?" she asked, yawning.
"Because if I didn't wake you up and bring you along," Luna said, "You'd get all snooty when I told you about it the next morning and want to know why I didn't wake you up anyway and bring you along."
Celestia tilted her head. It made sense.
Far below, there were patches of light in the darkness, a farmhouse coming to life. Sweet Apple Acres. Luna looked at Celestia, who nodded, and the two princesses swooped down to the farm.
As they drew nearer, the situation became clearer. Big Mac was doing his best to console a distraught Applebloom and Sweetie Belle as they clung to his legs and wailed incoherently. Applejack, or at least, her hindquarters, was busy rummaging in the barn for something. That something was quickly revealed to be a rather menacing-looking pitchfork.
The princesses touched down, and nodded to Big Mac, who nodded in response.
"What happened?" Luna asked.
"Some varmint's gone and foalnapped Scoots," Applejack said, hefting her pitchfork. "Somethin' they reckon what walks on two legs and don't have a face."
"Really?" Celestia mused, running a hoof along the back of Applebloom's head and silencing her wails as the filly suddenly decided sleep was a good idea. Sweetie Belle followed suit not long after.
"Applejack, Big Macintosh," Luna said, "If you would stay here and look after your sister and Sweetie Belle, we shall venture forth and find Scootaloo."
"You sure you don't want me to come with?" Applejack asked.
"I believe we can handle ourselves," Celestia pointed out. "And what if the creature marked your sister and decides to come back for her? You should be here to help keep her safe in case we don't find the creature first."
Applejack nodded. "An' that's why y'all are the princesses, I guess. I never woulda thought of that."
"None of us are perfect, Applejack," Luna consoled. "Now, go, and we shall return."
With that, the princesses turned and took wing once more, leaving Applejack and Big Mac with the two, now quietly snoring, crusaders.
"I wish I knew that trick," Applejack muttered.
======
It wasn't hard to find the thing that Luna had seen. For one, few objects carved furrows through the Everfree quite like this one had. It had, by chance, passed into a natural clearing, and with remarkable skill, parked itself in the middle. And so, as Luna and Celestia walked up the furrow, they couldn't help but feel everything was a little... off.
There they were, standing at the edge of a clearing, in the middle of which stood the tear-shaped object, which, now that they were closer, looked like a container of some sort, clearly intended to hold the two-legged, dark-skinned, clearly-armored creature and something it felt like carrying, such as a small orange pegasus filly, who was struggling and kicking as she tried to escape it's inexorable, dextrous grip, a forelimb easily holding Scootaloo at length.
The other limb was wrapped around a strange metal object that was like a tube attached to a lump of metal, and as Applejack had relayed, the creature did appear to have no face, just a featureless dome of some reflective glass that stopped them seeing much of anything.
"Hello?" Luna called out, stopping her advance. "Can you understand us?"
The creature became agitated, making guttural noises that didn't seem to follow any particular pattern, and gesturing with the tube-block.
"You have one of our subjects," Celestia said as gently as she could. "Please release her."
"It's no good!" Scootaloo shouted. "This thing doesn't understand Equestrian!"
The thing jabbered again, some familiar sounds cropping up, but otherwise remaining quite incomprehensible.
"We just want our subject back," Celestia said, reaching out with a gold-shod hoof. "Please return her to us, and we can-"
The creature jabbered some more, and pointed with the tube. Luna opened her mouth, but there was a loud BANG and a flash of light. With a whizz, something small and metal flew across the clearing, and Celestia fell over backwards as something poked her in the eye, crying out in pain and surprise.
Luna glared at the thing, as it adjusted the aim of the tube thing to point at her. Clearly, it meant harm, so there was no longer any other option. She prepared the spell with lightning speed, and before the tube could explode again, she fired her own spell.
The bolt of green light hit her target in the torso, and in a spectacular detonation of light and energy, the thing exploded. Scootaloo was thrown from the blast, crying out in surprise. Luna shielded her face as a rain of wet objects began to rain down on her and the ground around her in a soft pitter-patter.
Celestia groaned, and got up, holding her face, and looked at Luna. "It got me in the eye!" she protested. "It threw something into my eye, and ow..."
Celestia, still holding a hoof to her eye, looked where her adversary had stood just a moment prior, and frowned. She looked at some of the wet things that had landed on her, and grimaced, before looking back at Luna in disbelief. "What did you even do?" Celestia exclaimed, disbelieving.
"I didn't mean to!" Luna protested. "I only hit it with a stun spell, and it kind of... you know, discorporated."
Celestia nodded slowly. "Right," she said, drawing out the word in a very sarcastic manner, one that she didn't get to often use.
They were joined by Scootaloo, who looked quite a picture, with half of her face and side coated in various bits of red matter, and eyes wide in horror. Her lips were moving soundlessly as she numbly walked towards them.
"Hey, uh, Scootaloo," Luna said softly, kneeling down a little. "You okay?"
"...exploded," Scootaloo said numbly.
"Yes, yes," Celestia said, bringing Scootaloo closer and hugging her gently. "It exploded, and nopony is going to be making anything explode ever again..."
"I told you, it wasn't my fault!" Luna protested. "Come on, he had like, an allergic reaction to the stun spell or something!"
Celestia didn't respond to that, just running a hoof along the back of Scootaloo's head. Scootaloo quickly returned to slumber and found a place on Celestia's back, as the princesses regarded what was left of the crash site. Aside from being liberally coated in red, the tear-pod was still intact.
"What was it even here for?" Luna asked quietly. "Abducting our foals?"
"I guess we'll never know," Celestia sighed.
