It was a clear, peaceful evening in Equestria. Not a cloud was in the sky, everything was quiet, and almost everypony was sound asleep in their homes. We focus on a dirt path just outside Ponyville, where a good look at Princess Twilight's castle can be seen from a distance. On this path was Applebloom, and the filly wasn't exactly calm. She was walking the family dog, Winona, back home to Sweet Apple Acres when she lost her. Now Applebloom was frantically searching for the dog as she was incredibly worried ot only about Winona, but herself.
"Winona! Where are ya girl?!", the frightened pony said. "Ah man. If ah don't find her, Applejack's gonna be angrier than she's ever been! Now where could she have gone..."
Applebloom searched in some nearby bushes. Found nothing. Peaked behind some trees. Found nothing. Even going UP in the trees. Found nothing, except for some angry birds. After she recovered from that, Applebloom was starting to give up all hope in finding Winona.
"It's no use!", she said. "Ah ain't ever gonna find her by myself! Might as well get back to the orchard and get help, along with a punishment."
The filly started walking back to Sweet Apple Acres, disappointed in herself for losing Winona so easily. All Applebloom had done was think too hardly about how her and the other crusaders could get their Cutie Marks faster. But when she got too wound up in her own thoughts, Winona was gone. Applebloom continued sulking in shame while walking back, when she stepped in something very... odd. It was slimy and goo-like, and it got on Applebloom's hoof, which she immediately swiped off of herself in disgust. Applebloom had seen some gross stuff in the orchard, but never anything like this.
"EW!!! GROSS!!!", she said in disgust. "What the hay did ah just step in?! What kind of a pony would leave this arou-"
The filly stopped herself when she looked down and saw that there was a bunch of this stuff, and it was leading a trail going in two directions. Applebloom, being curious as always, followed the trail in one direction and expected to find something either really cool, or really disgusting. The goo led to behind a bush, which Applebloom hesitated a little to look behind, but did it anyway. She brushed the leaves aside and the filly couldn't believe what she saw.
"What in the-"
It was an egg, but not just any egg. The egg looked nothing like anything out of Equestria. It was slimy and large, a little taller than Applebloom, and it had an opening in the top, indicating that something came out of it. The question on Applebloom's mind was: What came out?
"Ah've never seen anything like it!", the awestruck farm pony said. "It's pretty gross, but really cool!"
Applebloom was so caught up in what a discovery she made that she completly forgot about Winona, and the question of what came out of the egg.
"Ah gotta tell Applejack! She's gonna love-"
But then she remembered something, the trail of goo went two ways. What was on the other end? Was it whatever emerged from the egg? Or was it something else? Applebloom wanted to find this out for herself. She started following the trail of goo as it got smaller and smaller as it got further away from the egg. The trail eventually ended right at a tree. It led a little up the tree and into the hole in the bark. Applebloom was nervous to look into the hole, her heart was beating a mile a minute. What if it was some kind of monster? The filly slowly lifted herself up into the hole with her forehooves and looked inside. What she saw was one of the most terrifying sights anypony had ever seen in their life, and she let it all out.
"AHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
Applebloom's scream was so loud that it could carry all the way across Equestria. Because the filly was near the orchard, her sister Applejack heard the outburst of fright from inside their house and went to investigate. The farm pony was a little irritated that her sister woke her up in the middle of the night but still went over to the tree Applebloom was at, while putting on a bit of an agitated look on her face.
"Applebloom! What in tarnation are ya doin' screamin' yer lungs out in the middle of the night?!", Applejack said with some anger in her voice. "Ya'll woke up Big Mac and Granny Smith! And where's Winona?"
Applebloom didn't give a response, she just layed there on the ground, hyperventilating and with a terrifyed face. Applejack got a little less angry and tried to calm her down.
"Sis, what's got ya so rattled up? Ya'll look like a field mouse that just escaped a million mouse traps!", she said.
Applebloom still didn't respond, but she did point in the direction of the hole she looked ino before. Applejack looked at the hole with confused eyes.
"Huh?", Applejack pondered to herself. "What could be in there that would scare Applebloom so much?"
The farm pony slowly approached the tree as she was a little startled by her sister's fear of what was inside. Applejack then looked inside the hole and was greeted to the most macabre sight the mare had ever saw.
"Sweet mother of Celestia!"
The object that was in the hole was in fact Winona, but she wasn't moving, and there was something attatched to the dog's face. It was spider-like with a tail that resembled a scorpion's. It had it's "legs" on Winona's head and the tail was wrapped around her neck. The dog still seemed to be breathing, but she definitely wasn't conscious. Applejack just stared in utter shock and Applebloom couldn't even look at all because of the terror she was feeling. Applejack had no idea how to comprehend this kind of peculiar situation, so she just thought of the most logical thing to do about it.
"Ah... Ah gotta... go talk to Twilight about this.", she said. "Ya'll think she might know what to do?", Applebloom responded. "Don't worry, Twilight always knows the best solution. Ah just hope she knows how to handle THIS..."
We get a view of deep space, far away from Equestria, where a strange type of ship is floating by. It was, of course, an alien ship as the Equestrians didn't have this kind of technology. We then see the inside of the large battleship where numerous empty and metallic hallways were plauging the area. At the end of one of these cold hallways, a throne-like chair sat in the middle of a large, circular room. The room was filled with alien devices of many kinds. Some were radars, along with a couple weapons thrown into the mix on the walls, and an enormous map of the galaxy sat in front of the throne. Now only one question remained: Who was in that seat?
This figure was not a pony, that's for certain, but instead he was one of the aliens that inhabited the ship. In fact, this certain one was the leader, and he was studying the map very intensely. The head alien had dreadlocks for hair, a grey, metallic mask on, and sharp claws with reptilian looking skin. This creature seemed to be looking for something on the map of the galaxy, and even more odd, he had his eyes focused on Equestria. The planet itself was what was in focus at the moment, and we see the alien's point of view: thermal vision. The planet on the map glowed an intense red as the creature noticed something about the planet, the thing he was looking for, in fact.
You see, the alien had his helmet set to find a specific organism, and it was on Equestria. He zoomed the map in on the planet and closer to the kingdom. The target seemed to be close to Twilight's castle, and the alien zoomed in yet again. Now he could see the thing he was trying to find, and it was the creature that latched on to Winona. Applejack and Twilight were carrying her into the castle, with the rest of the Mane Six following suit. The head alien immediately typed some buttons on his throne that activated something in the hibernation room, the area where the rest of the aliens slept. A voice coming from the speaker announced the name of the pod and alien being awoken.
"POD A-189; RAILIA; CODENAME: HUNTER ZYPHER; AWAKING FROM HYPERSLEEP AT THE REQUEST OF COMMANDER SYPHON."
This "hunter" awoke from his sleep and immediately rushed towards the commander's room. He stopped as soon as he reached the back of the throne and the head alien spoke to him in very fragmented English.
"Serpents... Returned...", he said in a very menacing tone. "Find... Destroy..."
The hunter nodded in agreement as he downloaded the coordinates on the device on his wrist. He then went to suit up with his equipment. These tools included a metallic spear, a shoulder cannon, two wrist blades, and a gun with a supply of nets in it. These devices were all used for killing, or hunting, in these creature's case. They were the ultimate warriors in the galaxy. Predators. This Predator put his mask on after suiting up, which made his thermal vision more focused. He then went to a room which held many transportation pods. The Predator got into one of them and downloaded the cooridinates to Equestria. The pod was blasted off into space, and the Predator was on his way to eliminate this unknown organism.
*
We then see the Mane Six putting Winona down on a table in the castle, with the creature still attatched to her face. Twilight and Fluttershy started examining the organism, Applejack stood close behind them with some worry on her face, Rarity was trying her hardest not to barf at the sight, Rainbow Dash gazed at the creature, thinking it looked pretty cool, and Pinkie Pie just stood there, watching with a smile on her face as usual. Twilight used an eyeglass to study the strange animal as close as possible, trying to come up with a conclusion about it.
"So, is Winona alright?", Applejack said with concern.
"Well, she's alive, I can be sure of that", Twilight responded.
"But what the hay is that thing on her face?!", Rainbow exclaimed.
Twilight still wasn't sure what to make of that, so she just shrugged and gave the best answer she could.
"I have no idea! I've never seen anything like it in Equestria! Fluttershy?"
"I don't have a clue of that either.", Fluttershy said in her usual soft tone. "I've seen just about every animal there is. This is the strangest one I've seen yet!".
"But why would that, *gulp*, disgusting thing want to latch on to a dog like that?", pondered Rarity.
To answer that question, Twilight gave the creature another quick look and responded to the group.
"It's not really apparent WHY, but it looks like this thing is trying to do something to her body by sticking to Winona's face like glue.", she told them.
"OOH! Like a face hugger!", Pinkie exclaimed out of nowhere.
The ponies were kind of baffled by this statement, but Pinkie was kind enough to give an explanation.
"It's hugging Winona's face, so it's a Facehugger!"
They were still a little weirded out, but everypony just excepted it and decided to call it that. Besides, what else were they gonna call it? But Applejack got a little impatient with the rest of the group.
"I don't care what it's called! I just wanna know how we're gonna get it off!"
Taking this comment, Twilight looked at the Facehugger a little more and couldn't find anything they could do to get it loose.
"Well, it's on pretty tight. It's tail is wrapped around her neck and the fingers are almost lodged into her skin!"
"So then what're we gonna do?", Applejack exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash then decided to do something about the situation.
"Easy!", she said while flying over to the table. "We just yank it off!"
"Um... I don't think that's such a good idea.", Fluttershy suggested.
"Watch me."
Rainbow then wrapped her front hooves around the Facehugger and pulled as hard as she could. The Facehugger didn't even budge. It just stayed stuck and started wrapping it's tail even tighter around Winona's neck. Rainbow didn't notice because she was busy pulling, but Applejack did.
"Stop! Yer chokin' her!"
The pegasus heard her and stopped as the tail slowly went back to how it was before. The Mane Six were shocked at how much this thing wanted to stay on, but it did. And the ponies were running out of ideas. But after a minute or so of thinking, Twilight got a bit of a strategy.
"I got it! I could burn it off!"
"What do you mean, Twilight?", asked Fluttershy.
"My lasers have a bit of a burning affect to them, I could increase it a bit and we could get the uh..."
"Facehugger!", Pinkie reminded her.
"Right, Facehugger, off!", she explained.
The ponies thought and decided that this was this was the most logical plan, so Twilight charged up her horn and shot a small, continuous laser at one of the legs. Luckily, the Facehugger's tail didn't get tighter as the crinkily skin slowly started to burn off. The smoke rose to the top of the room and a gastly smell spread through the area as the ponies anxiously waited for the leg to finally fall off. But just as it looked like it was, a green fluid started pouring out of the leg which Twilight immediately jumped out of the way of. The ponies assumed it to be the creature's blood, which wasn't so unusual. What was unusual was that the blood started hissing as it hit the ground and melted through the floor! The blood went further down as the ponies stared at it with terrified expressions.
"W-what was that?!", Rainbow exclaimed.
"It's... blood is like... acid!", remarked Twilight.
"It's a good think none of us touched it!", said Rarity.
The Mane Six took a quick look at the Facehugger and looked away just as quickly in fear of the creature.
"Just... where did this thing even come from?!", said Applejack.
"That's a tough question to answer." Twilight responded. "For now, I'd just recommend taking Winona home. I'll come and work on her a little more in the morining. Ok?"
"Alright, Twilight."
Everypony agreed to this and they all went home tired and confused (And in Fluttershy's case, a little frightened as well). Applejack carried Winona home while thinking of what she could possibly tell her family. The Mane Six all had their different opinions on the creature, but the same question was on all of their minds: Where did it come from?
*
After this odd event, Celestia rose the sun as it shone upon the land. Birds sung, flowers bloomed, and ponies woke up to do their everyday jobs. The morning was peaceful, but the Apple family was far from it. Applejack and Applebloom went downstairs immediately after they woke up to check on Winona. The two sisters were frantic running down the stairs with their thoughts racing about the Facehugger. They had no idea what they were gonna see after whole night of leaving the two alone. But when they got to where they put Winona, the sisters were surprised to see that Winona was just fine! She was up, shaking her tail, and just as peppy as usual. And even more surprising was the case with the Facehugger. It was on the floor, dead, curled up in a little ball. Applejack couldn't think of anything to say, but her sister commented on the situation for her.
"So... is it over?", asked Applebloom.
Applejack was still baffled at the oddity, but when she took another look at Winona, up and about like nothing happened, she knew it was gonna be fine.
"Yep, it's over."
"Good! Ah was worried sick about Winona!"
"Me too, Applebloom! But we should probably take her to a vet later to make sure that thing didn't do anything to her body."
"Good idea."
The farm sisters agreed, happy that this was taken care of. Applejack grabbed the Facehugger (carefully, so she wouldn't get any possible acid blood on her) and put it in a bag so Twilight could examine it if she wanted to, and Applebloom put out Winona's usual diet of dog food and water. The two went back upstairs and Winona casually started feeding on her food. Everything seemed just fine at the moment. But after a little bit more of Winona's eating, something odd and disgusting started to happen. Winona started jerking around a bit. At first, it was only a little of her being stiff. But it soon advanced to her rolling on the floor in agony. Something was happening inside her stomach. It felt almost... alive to Winona. Then, a few drops of blood started leaking out of her torso. Then more and more as the blood steadily grew in amount and Winona wailing in pain all the way. Applejack and Applebloom heard the commotion and rushed downstairs to see what was happening. And boy were they surprised at the grotesque sight.
"Wha-what's happenin' to her?!", Applebloom asked with much fear in her voice.
"I have no idea!", Applejack responded.
Applebloom started to step foward to try and help the dog, but Applejack stopped her in her tracks.
"No! You stay back! I'll handel this."
The earth pony walked foward and quickly grabbed Winona, pinning her on to the ground. The dog was still wailing her lungs out as Applejack was getting blood all over her face. But she pulled through, and kept trying to get Winona calm again. After a while of wrestling on the ground, Applejack felt something hit her torso, and it wasn't Winona. It was something inside the dog's stomach that looked like it was trying to get out! The object jerked around inside Winona's stomach as the indent got larger and larger with the dog yelling louder than she ever did before. Finally, the object burst out of Winona with blood pouring all over the room. The dog was silenced, and it was replaced with a screech that was coming from something Applejack and Applebloom couldn't believe they were seeing.
