Ponycraft: Equine Warby DarkColtChaptersPrologueChapter 1: The MeteorChapter 3: DebrisPrologueThe rain continued pouring hard as several ponies galloped for their lives while hundreds upon hundreds of monsters of indescribable horror descended upon them. The Royal Guard were completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of the creatures, the strange ground kept spreading over the town and more and more of those pod things kept falling from the sky, releasing more of the monsters. Ponyville was lost, Lyra realized with horror. The town was lost and they were all going to die at the claws of these nightmarish beasts. Lyra tripped over a branch and she immediately realized she was doomed as one of the smaller creatures leaped up toward her, its claws outstretched to rip her open and kill her, Lyra closed her eyes and accepted her fate... Meanwhile, far above beyond the sky, beyond the very atmosphere of the world. A large cruiser orbited the planet and inside two men, Terrans, watched several screens depicting the horrifying images from the planet. One of the Terrans dressed in an officer’s uniform, shook his head. “This proves it.” He said. “The psi emitter can draw the Zerg en masse. The rumours that Mengsk and the Sons of Korhol were behind the invasion of Tarsonis were true! Damn that man!” The other Terran, dressed like royalty, with dark gray clothing and a long grey cape and a long sword sheathed and attached to his belt, smiled. “I’m surprised,” He said. “I thought the records were destroyed on Mar Sara, but Mengsk is far more resourceful than we ever imagined.” “But just as ruthless.” The officer replied. “It turns out we weren’t lying about him after all.” The screens and lights in the cramped room flickered before turning off completely, causing the Terran in the fancy clothes to curse. “I thought we were too far from the Rift for the energy waves to hit us!?” He said. “Sorry, sir.” The officer said. “I guess we were wrong.” The royal Terran pulled out an object from his pocket, a badge with the symbol of the Confederacy of Man. He examined it as he slowly walked toward the window, looking down on the world below the ship. “Well,” The officer said. “Now that we know Mengsk was the one who used the psi emitters, what do we do?” “Simple,” The royal Terran answered. “We return to our own dimension, and use the psi emitter to wipe out Mengsk and his Dominion, and we bring the Confederacy and the Old Families back to power!” "With all due respect sir, we're one ship." The officer said. "If you hadn't sacrificed Captain Doro's ship days ago to bring the psi emitter and the Zerg to this dimension, we'd have enough supplies to take over one of the fringe worlds and gather more Confederate loyalists to join our cause." "With our psi emitters, we won't need more troops and supplies, we can just simply destroy the main Zerg hive with on well-placed nuke right after they wipe out all resistance on the planet but before they can gain a stronger foothold!" "Sir, you saw what the Zerg did to Tarsonis, they dug themselves so deep into the ground that the only thing that could get rid of them was if they decided to leave on their own, which they did!" "You make it sound like they're intelligent, General." The royal Terran responded. "The Zerg are beasts, nothing more. No intelligence, no strategy, just mindless beasts that attack and kill all in their path." Before the officer could reply, the whole area shook and another crewman entered the room. “Sir!” He said, panic on his face. “Zerg attack force! They’re tearing at the bulkheads!” “What!?” The royal Terran said. “Damn! Of all the times to attack us, it had to be when we were without power!” The ship shook again and the sound of creaking metal could be heard. “Get to the drop-pods!” The officer ordered. “We’ll evacuate onto the planet below!” “Have you gone mad!?” The royal Terran said. “The Zerg will overrun that planet in a matter of days! We’ll be putting our backs to the wall!” “If you wish to remain onboard, be my guest.” The officer said. “But I’m not staying here, dying in the vacuum of space isn’t the most dignified, or painless, way to go.” “Neither is dying at the hands of a thousand Zerglings...” The royal said, but nevertheless, he followed the officer and the other crewman to the drop-pods where everyone was already making their way to. Outside, dozens of Mutalisks tore at the large battlecruiser, ripping into its hull. None noticed the multitude of pods being jettisoned from the cruisers, flying towards the planet and heating up as they entered the planet’s atmosphere. Farther beyond the dead cruiser, a bright flash appeared as a large golden ship reminiscent to that of a zeppelin formed, the Mutalisks immediately abandon the cruiser and flew towards the golden ship. Inside one of the pods, the royal looked up between the skirmish of the Zerg flying units and the large golden ship. "You know what's also another undignified way to go?" He asked the officer, who responded with a puzzled look. The royal pointed to the golden ship. "Being melted by the Protoss..." Chapter 1: The MeteorSpike yawned and the lateness of the night and the sheer boringness of the situation began to take its toll on the baby dragon. “Twilight...” He said to the unicorn who sat not far from him as she gazed intently at a star in the night sky. “We really should head back to the library and get some sleep, it’s really late.” “Sorry, Spike.” Twilight Sparkle said, still staring at the same star, her eyes calculating it and trying to figure it out. “But this is big, I mean, really big!” Her horn began glowing as she levitated a piece of parchment and quill and wrote down some notes. Spike sighed. “What’s so important about a star?” “Because, Spike, this star wasn’t in the sky last night, nor was it the night before that, and the night before that! This star never existed before!” Spike stared at Twilight. “So?” He asked. “Maybe Princess Luna decided to create a new star.” “You can’t just create a new star, Spike.” Twilight stated. “For centuries, sailors used the stars in the night sky to navigate their way across the sea, you add one star and you could mess up the whole navigation process! Plus, why would Luna create just one star and not say anything about it?” “Ugh, I don’t know.” Spike said, his patience gone. “Couldn’t you just wait until morning and ask Princess Celestia about it?” “Maybe,” Twilight said. “I’ll see what I can gather tonight before sending a letter to the Princess.” “Fine, but I’m gonna go to bed now.” With that, Spike turned and made his back to the library, leaving Twilight to stare at the sky alone. Shortly after Spike had left, Twilight began having second thoughts. Maybe he’s right, she thought. Maybe I’m just over-obsessing on something that is really no big deal at all. She looked back up at the star and blinked, rubbing her eyes. Is it... Getting bigger!? She shook her head. “I must be seeing things...” She muttered. It must be because it’s so late. A yawn confirmed to the unicorn that she was, indeed, very tired. Maybe the Princesses know something about this, like Spike suggested... With another yawn, Twilight made her back to the library to get some sleep. Meanwhile, high above the planet, towards the ‘star’. A large battlecruiser hung above the planet, trying desperately not to let the gravity of the world draw the cruiser further in. Inside the bridge of the ship, sparks blasted from several destroyed consoles and two heavily armed marines had their guns trained on the door as two crewmen tried desperately to keep it closed. “Captain!” A technician in front of one of the working consoles called out, catching the attention of a brown-haired man in a light gray uniform to turn to face him. The technician continued. “Engines two and four are giving out, we can’t maintain orbit for much longer!” “Sir!” A woman by another console shouted. “I just lost contact with engineering! I think they were overrun!” “Captain!” One of the crewmen at the door called out as a loud bang was heard. “We can’t hold them back much longer!” The captain growled. “Argh! Damn you Calabas! I get you out of Tarsonis and this is how you repay me!?” Another bang on the door, this time louder. “Orders sir?” A marine asked. The Captain thought for a moment, then turned to the woman. “Activate the self-destruct! Let’s not give our so-called master what he wants!” The woman nodded, her eyes wide as she realized that, no matter what they did, they were all going to die. She tapped a few keys and her face went pale. “Sir...” She said. “There is something in the ship that is chewing up all the wires connecting across the ship. I think it’s some sort of Zerg creature.” “Damn... Damn it all!” The captain cried out, defeated. Then he got an idea, an idea born out of desperation. It’s a long shot, but we don’t have any other options... He turned to the other technician. “We still have connection to the engines, right?” He asked. “Uh, yes sir, we do...” “Deactivate them, maybe the ship will burn up in the atmosphere if we just let ourselves drop and offer no resistance.” “Yes sir...” The technician began tapping on the keys of his console while a loud creaking sound was heard. “Sir!” A crewman at the door called. “I think they’re-” He was interrupted as a monstrous arm ripped through the door next to him, then tore at the man’s chest, ripping him apart. He fell back, dragging blood on the door as he slid to the ground, dead. One of the marines opened fire on the arm, peppering it with shells. An inhuman scream shouted in response as the dead arm was pulled back. “This is it, boys!” The captain called out, drawing a pistol and aiming it at the door that was being ripped apart. “Lock and load!” The door burst open, and once human forms rushed in through, only to be torn up by the two marines and the captain’s guns... The Battlecruiser’s engines gave out, cut off from power, and it immediately began to fall toward the planet, instantly heating up as it entered its atmosphere... Back on the planet, if anypony were looking up at the sky and saw the bright star, they would’ve seen its light suddenly disappear, but then slowly reappear as a comet as it fell from the sky and into the heart of the Everfree forest, hitting the ground as a giant fireball. The shockwave from the explosion rocketing across the entire forest and the nearby town of Ponyville, jerking everypony awake and shattering the windows in their homes, including the library. “Gah!” Twilight screamed as she fell out of her bed. “What in the name of Celestia was that!?” “I don’t know!” Spike called back. “But, be careful where you step, there’s glass everywhere!” It took some time, but Twilight was able to safely navigate her way outside the library and see that the carnage was across the entire town. “Twilight!” A voice called out. Twilight turned to see Pinkie Pie bouncing towards her. “Did you see the spaceship that crashed!? It was so cool!” “Spaceship? Pinkie, this is no time for jokes, we gotta find out what caused this.” Pinkie shook her head. “Nonono, that was the spaceship! I’m telling you!” “It wasn’t a spaceship Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash called out as she landed next to her friends. “It was some kind of meteor that crashed into the Everfree forest!” “A meteor?” Twilight asked, then her eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh! Do you all know how lucky we all are!? If it was a smidge bigger, all life in Equestria, neigh, the whole world would’ve been wiped out!” Pinkie groaned in mild frustration. “It wasn’t a meteor, it was an alien spaceship, look!” The pink earth pony pointed in the direction of the Everfree forest, where a large amount of smoke was billowing from deep within, and a large orange glow could be seen. “Oh no...” Twilight said. “I hope Zecora’s okay...” She turned to the rainbow mane pegasus. “Dash! Fly up and see how bad the damage is, we gotta put out that fire!” Dash saluted and flew up to the sky. She returned a few minutes later coughing and wheezing for air. “I can’t get close to the Everfree!” She gasped. “The air is filled with some kind of poison.” “Duh!” Pinkie said. “That’s the fuel from the alien spaceship being burned from the fire.” Twilight sighed. “Pinkie, how do you know it’s a spaceship?” “Because I saw its silhouette as it fell from the sky!” She answered. “And it was definitely not some big rock!” “Pinkie!” Dash said, agitated. “Spaceships are only in science fiction books, they don’t exist in real life!” Pinkie’s eyes went wide, but they quickly turned into a glare. “Say that again, Dashie. I dare you...” Moving between the two ponies before things got worse, Twilight cleared her throat. “We can worry about what it actually was that crashed into the forest later, but right now, we need to do something about the fire that’s spreading across the forest!” The two mares nodded in agreement. “Pinkie,” The unicorn said. “Find Rarity. Dash, get Applejack, we’ll meet in Fluttershy’s cottage and see what we can do about the fire.” “What about the rest of the town?” Rainbow Dash asked, gesturing to the town where many ponies were scrambling to clean up the glass and other damages made to the town, while also glancing with worried expressions to the smoke. Twilight shook her head. “The rest of the town can handle things here, we gotta make sure that fire doesn’t get out of control.” The mares nodded, and split off to find their friends. Chapter 3: Debris“Darn it, Applebloom!” Applejack cried out to her sister. “Ah said stay inside!” The orange earth pony ran out of the house after her little sister, who protested. “But Applejack!” “No buts! We don’t know what caused this, now git back inside with Granny while Big Mac and I try to figure this out!” Applejack said as she caught with Applebloom and stopped dead in her tracks, she stared perplexed at a large metal object stuck deep into the ground in front of her. “What in tarnation is that?” Applebloom asked, stepping towards it, before AJ stepped in front of her. “Don’t git too close to it, Applebloom.” Even from here, she could feel a lot of heat radiating from it. Her eyes glanced toward a bright red form next to her. “Any idea what this is, Big Mac?” She asked. Her elder brother shook his head. “Nnnnope!” He said. “AJ!” A voice called out, causing the earth pony to look in the direction of Ponyville, there she saw Rainbow Dash flying towards. “Rainbow!” AJ called back, waving. “Do you know what’s goin’ on?” “Something crashed into the Everfree forest,” The pegasus answered, landing next to AJ. “She wants us to- Woah!” That was when she noticed the metal object in the ground. “Yikes!” She said. “I guess Pinkie was right, it must’ve been a spaceship...” “A what-now!?” AJ asked, confused but Rainbow simply shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, look, there’s a fire raging out of control in the Everfree, and Twilight wants us to meet her at Fluttershy’s so we can figure out how to put it out.” “A fire?” AJ looked over into town, and saw the large amount of smoke and the orange glow emanating from the forest that sent shivers up her spine. “Sweet Celestia...” The earth pony turned to Big Mac. “Take Applebloom inside, an’ make sure she doesn’t git out again. I’ll go help Twi and the others to help fix this mess.” “Eeeeyep!” Big Mac answered, herding a protesting Applebloom back toward the house. With that, AJ galloped after Rainbow Dash, heading back towards Ponyville. In the heart of the town, a door slammed open, surprising a nearby gold-maned grey pegasus and causing her to stumble into two other ponies who were nearly finished cleaning up the glass. Emerging from the door, was a pure white unicorn with a spikey blue mane and huge, oversized glasses. “ALRIGHT!” Vinyl Scratch called out to nopony in particular. “WHERE’S THE DJ THAT CAUSED THIS, CAUSE I WANT THAT DJ’S AUTOGRAPH! AND HIS OR HER SOUND SYSTEM THAT CAUSED THIS!” “Vinyl!” A high-class voice called out from behind the unicorn. Octavia stepped out, nervously stepping over any nearby glass shards, before glaring at Vinyl. “What?” The unicorn DJ asked. “Do you see what happened here? Think what I could with a sound system THIS powerful!” Octavia shuddered. “I’d rather not...” “It wasn’t a DJ.” The grey pegasus said, causing both ponies to look at her. “Ditzy?” Octavia asked. “What do you mean?” “I heard Pinkie Pie tell Rarity that it was some kind of spaceship that crashed into the Everfree forest.” Vinyl scoffed. “Really? A spaceship? Come on... Even you, Derpy, have to admit that is beyond stupid.” Ditzy glared at the DJ, which caused her to hold back a chuckle at the pegasus’ eyes. Ditzy simply pointed a hoof toward the forest, and plume of smoke and orange glow. Vinyl stared, lowering her glasses, partially revealing her wide red eyes as she got a better look at it, and whistled. “Well, buck me...” She said. “How come that wasn’t the first thing we noticed?” Octavia asked. Before Vinyl could make any kind of response, Rainbow Dash flew by, knocking over the DJ. “Gangway!” The rainbow maned pegasus called out. “Coming through!” “Sorry!” Applejack said as she ran by. “Emergency!” Vinyl got up before Octavia could even move to help her. “Watch where ya fly, you damned Pegasus!” Vinyl yelled, shaking her hoof at Dash. As Twilight came into view of Fluttershy’s cottage, she gasped to she saw that even the cottage was hit by the soundwave of the explosion. She galloped, worried for the emotionally fragile pegasus. As she came closer, her nose caught a scent that nearly made her gag. It smelled awful and... artificial and wrong. She ignored it when she saw Fluttershy in the field , tending to something on the ground. “Fluttershy!” She called out, causing the pegasus to jump and squeal in surprise and fear. She whirled around and, upon seeing Twilight, burst into tears. “Twilight!” She said as she nearly tackled the unicorn in an embrace, crying in her shoulder. Twilight returned the embrace and spoke in a comforting voice. “It’s okay, I’m here and the others are on their way...” “T-t-the explosion scared all the critters...” Fluttershy sniffled. “All the b-birds flew into the air, but then they all fell and now they’re... they’re...” Fluttershy broke down again and cried harder. Twilight then remembered the stench that filled her nose and remembered that Rainbow couldn’t fly very high because the air was filled with some kind of poison... “I’m so, so sorry Fluttershy...” She said, holding her a little tighter. “But, once the others get here, we’ll find a way to stop this. I promise.” Fluttershy sniffled again, before looking to see Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow and AJ running over to them. “Is everything alright, darlings?” Rarity asked, her eyes filled with concern. “No,” Twilight answered, turning to face her friends. “We have to move to stop this! Before any more damage is done!” She was mad, mad to see Fluttershy in such a broken state. It pained everypony to see Fluttershy so hurt. They made their way inside the cottage silently, sedately. Even Pinkie had stopped her bouncing, and glanced back to Fluttershy every now and then. As Fluttershy slowly shut the door behind her, Rainbow Dash scrunched her nose. “The air here smells exactly like the poison higher up except not as strong and overpowering.” She said. “What could possibly cause such a horrid stench?” Rarity asked. “The fuel from the spaceship, like I said before.” Pinkie answered. “Pinkie...” Twilight said, about to question her before AJ spoke. “Twi, I think Pinkie may be right. Over by the farm, me an’ Big Mac saw this huge piece of metal sticking deep into the ground, an’ it was hot, even from a distance. Wasn’t natural either, somethin’ made that.” “If it’s an alien ship...” Rainbow said. “Does that mean this is some sort of attack?” Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think crashing a ship would be an attack. If it was a ship that crashed, it was probably a terrible, terrible accident.” “I hope the aliens are okay...” Fluttershy said quietly. “Hey, maybe they deserved it, for all we know.” Rainbow said. “These aliens could be complete jerks who probably would’ve invaded us anyways!” “We’re jumping to conclusions, everypony!” Twilight said, walking over to the window overlooking the forest. “Right now, there’s a fire burning wildly in the forest and, if we don’t do something soon, the whole forest could burn down, and spread to the town itself. We have to find a way to stop this before it’s too late.” Everypony nodded in agreement. “How are we gonna do that?” AJ asked. “I have a few spells that might be able to do the trick,” Twilight answered. “But it all depends on how bad the damage is already.” She turned to her friends, horn glowing before a flash filled the room for a second. When it vanished, all the ponies rubbed their eyes, before looking to see a purple aura glowing from them. Twilight had the same aura, and sniffed the air, before smiling. “Woah, Twilight!” Rainbow said. “What did you do?” “It’s a protection spell,” The unicorn answered. “Now we can enter the forest without having to worry about the heat from the fire or the poisonous air. If you’ll notice, you can’t smell the stench from the fuel.” Rainbow sniffed the air, and breathed deep. “Oh, it feels so good to smell fresh air again!” “My my my, darling!” Rarity said, examining her forehoof and the purple glow all around her. “You’re magical talent certainly has improved.” “I know, years ago I wouldn’t have dared try anything this complex.” “But...” Rarity hesitated. “Does it have to purple? No offense, but this aura colour doesn’t really match with my fur.” “Ah, quit yer whinin’!” AJ said. “If it protects us, that’s good enough fer me.” “Let’s make our way to the forest, girls!” Twilight said, running out the door followed by her friends. Flames burned all around the trees next to the wrecked hull of the cruiser. A rumble was heard inside, and then a bang, and then a large door slowly opened part way, where numerous shapes of twisted human life forms emerged, howling at the flames and the forest.
PrologueThe rain continued pouring hard as several ponies galloped for their lives while hundreds upon hundreds of monsters of indescribable horror descended upon them. The Royal Guard were completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of the creatures, the strange ground kept spreading over the town and more and more of those pod things kept falling from the sky, releasing more of the monsters. Ponyville was lost, Lyra realized with horror. The town was lost and they were all going to die at the claws of these nightmarish beasts. Lyra tripped over a branch and she immediately realized she was doomed as one of the smaller creatures leaped up toward her, its claws outstretched to rip her open and kill her, Lyra closed her eyes and accepted her fate... Meanwhile, far above beyond the sky, beyond the very atmosphere of the world. A large cruiser orbited the planet and inside two men, Terrans, watched several screens depicting the horrifying images from the planet. One of the Terrans dressed in an officer’s uniform, shook his head. “This proves it.” He said. “The psi emitter can draw the Zerg en masse. The rumours that Mengsk and the Sons of Korhol were behind the invasion of Tarsonis were true! Damn that man!” The other Terran, dressed like royalty, with dark gray clothing and a long grey cape and a long sword sheathed and attached to his belt, smiled. “I’m surprised,” He said. “I thought the records were destroyed on Mar Sara, but Mengsk is far more resourceful than we ever imagined.” “But just as ruthless.” The officer replied. “It turns out we weren’t lying about him after all.” The screens and lights in the cramped room flickered before turning off completely, causing the Terran in the fancy clothes to curse. “I thought we were too far from the Rift for the energy waves to hit us!?” He said. “Sorry, sir.” The officer said. “I guess we were wrong.” The royal Terran pulled out an object from his pocket, a badge with the symbol of the Confederacy of Man. He examined it as he slowly walked toward the window, looking down on the world below the ship. “Well,” The officer said. “Now that we know Mengsk was the one who used the psi emitters, what do we do?” “Simple,” The royal Terran answered. “We return to our own dimension, and use the psi emitter to wipe out Mengsk and his Dominion, and we bring the Confederacy and the Old Families back to power!” "With all due respect sir, we're one ship." The officer said. "If you hadn't sacrificed Captain Doro's ship days ago to bring the psi emitter and the Zerg to this dimension, we'd have enough supplies to take over one of the fringe worlds and gather more Confederate loyalists to join our cause." "With our psi emitters, we won't need more troops and supplies, we can just simply destroy the main Zerg hive with on well-placed nuke right after they wipe out all resistance on the planet but before they can gain a stronger foothold!" "Sir, you saw what the Zerg did to Tarsonis, they dug themselves so deep into the ground that the only thing that could get rid of them was if they decided to leave on their own, which they did!" "You make it sound like they're intelligent, General." The royal Terran responded. "The Zerg are beasts, nothing more. No intelligence, no strategy, just mindless beasts that attack and kill all in their path." Before the officer could reply, the whole area shook and another crewman entered the room. “Sir!” He said, panic on his face. “Zerg attack force! They’re tearing at the bulkheads!” “What!?” The royal Terran said. “Damn! Of all the times to attack us, it had to be when we were without power!” The ship shook again and the sound of creaking metal could be heard. “Get to the drop-pods!” The officer ordered. “We’ll evacuate onto the planet below!” “Have you gone mad!?” The royal Terran said. “The Zerg will overrun that planet in a matter of days! We’ll be putting our backs to the wall!” “If you wish to remain onboard, be my guest.” The officer said. “But I’m not staying here, dying in the vacuum of space isn’t the most dignified, or painless, way to go.” “Neither is dying at the hands of a thousand Zerglings...” The royal said, but nevertheless, he followed the officer and the other crewman to the drop-pods where everyone was already making their way to. Outside, dozens of Mutalisks tore at the large battlecruiser, ripping into its hull. None noticed the multitude of pods being jettisoned from the cruisers, flying towards the planet and heating up as they entered the planet’s atmosphere. Farther beyond the dead cruiser, a bright flash appeared as a large golden ship reminiscent to that of a zeppelin formed, the Mutalisks immediately abandon the cruiser and flew towards the golden ship. Inside one of the pods, the royal looked up between the skirmish of the Zerg flying units and the large golden ship. "You know what's also another undignified way to go?" He asked the officer, who responded with a puzzled look. The royal pointed to the golden ship. "Being melted by the Protoss..."
Chapter 1: The MeteorSpike yawned and the lateness of the night and the sheer boringness of the situation began to take its toll on the baby dragon. “Twilight...” He said to the unicorn who sat not far from him as she gazed intently at a star in the night sky. “We really should head back to the library and get some sleep, it’s really late.” “Sorry, Spike.” Twilight Sparkle said, still staring at the same star, her eyes calculating it and trying to figure it out. “But this is big, I mean, really big!” Her horn began glowing as she levitated a piece of parchment and quill and wrote down some notes. Spike sighed. “What’s so important about a star?” “Because, Spike, this star wasn’t in the sky last night, nor was it the night before that, and the night before that! This star never existed before!” Spike stared at Twilight. “So?” He asked. “Maybe Princess Luna decided to create a new star.” “You can’t just create a new star, Spike.” Twilight stated. “For centuries, sailors used the stars in the night sky to navigate their way across the sea, you add one star and you could mess up the whole navigation process! Plus, why would Luna create just one star and not say anything about it?” “Ugh, I don’t know.” Spike said, his patience gone. “Couldn’t you just wait until morning and ask Princess Celestia about it?” “Maybe,” Twilight said. “I’ll see what I can gather tonight before sending a letter to the Princess.” “Fine, but I’m gonna go to bed now.” With that, Spike turned and made his back to the library, leaving Twilight to stare at the sky alone. Shortly after Spike had left, Twilight began having second thoughts. Maybe he’s right, she thought. Maybe I’m just over-obsessing on something that is really no big deal at all. She looked back up at the star and blinked, rubbing her eyes. Is it... Getting bigger!? She shook her head. “I must be seeing things...” She muttered. It must be because it’s so late. A yawn confirmed to the unicorn that she was, indeed, very tired. Maybe the Princesses know something about this, like Spike suggested... With another yawn, Twilight made her back to the library to get some sleep. Meanwhile, high above the planet, towards the ‘star’. A large battlecruiser hung above the planet, trying desperately not to let the gravity of the world draw the cruiser further in. Inside the bridge of the ship, sparks blasted from several destroyed consoles and two heavily armed marines had their guns trained on the door as two crewmen tried desperately to keep it closed. “Captain!” A technician in front of one of the working consoles called out, catching the attention of a brown-haired man in a light gray uniform to turn to face him. The technician continued. “Engines two and four are giving out, we can’t maintain orbit for much longer!” “Sir!” A woman by another console shouted. “I just lost contact with engineering! I think they were overrun!” “Captain!” One of the crewmen at the door called out as a loud bang was heard. “We can’t hold them back much longer!” The captain growled. “Argh! Damn you Calabas! I get you out of Tarsonis and this is how you repay me!?” Another bang on the door, this time louder. “Orders sir?” A marine asked. The Captain thought for a moment, then turned to the woman. “Activate the self-destruct! Let’s not give our so-called master what he wants!” The woman nodded, her eyes wide as she realized that, no matter what they did, they were all going to die. She tapped a few keys and her face went pale. “Sir...” She said. “There is something in the ship that is chewing up all the wires connecting across the ship. I think it’s some sort of Zerg creature.” “Damn... Damn it all!” The captain cried out, defeated. Then he got an idea, an idea born out of desperation. It’s a long shot, but we don’t have any other options... He turned to the other technician. “We still have connection to the engines, right?” He asked. “Uh, yes sir, we do...” “Deactivate them, maybe the ship will burn up in the atmosphere if we just let ourselves drop and offer no resistance.” “Yes sir...” The technician began tapping on the keys of his console while a loud creaking sound was heard. “Sir!” A crewman at the door called. “I think they’re-” He was interrupted as a monstrous arm ripped through the door next to him, then tore at the man’s chest, ripping him apart. He fell back, dragging blood on the door as he slid to the ground, dead. One of the marines opened fire on the arm, peppering it with shells. An inhuman scream shouted in response as the dead arm was pulled back. “This is it, boys!” The captain called out, drawing a pistol and aiming it at the door that was being ripped apart. “Lock and load!” The door burst open, and once human forms rushed in through, only to be torn up by the two marines and the captain’s guns... The Battlecruiser’s engines gave out, cut off from power, and it immediately began to fall toward the planet, instantly heating up as it entered its atmosphere... Back on the planet, if anypony were looking up at the sky and saw the bright star, they would’ve seen its light suddenly disappear, but then slowly reappear as a comet as it fell from the sky and into the heart of the Everfree forest, hitting the ground as a giant fireball. The shockwave from the explosion rocketing across the entire forest and the nearby town of Ponyville, jerking everypony awake and shattering the windows in their homes, including the library. “Gah!” Twilight screamed as she fell out of her bed. “What in the name of Celestia was that!?” “I don’t know!” Spike called back. “But, be careful where you step, there’s glass everywhere!” It took some time, but Twilight was able to safely navigate her way outside the library and see that the carnage was across the entire town. “Twilight!” A voice called out. Twilight turned to see Pinkie Pie bouncing towards her. “Did you see the spaceship that crashed!? It was so cool!” “Spaceship? Pinkie, this is no time for jokes, we gotta find out what caused this.” Pinkie shook her head. “Nonono, that was the spaceship! I’m telling you!” “It wasn’t a spaceship Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash called out as she landed next to her friends. “It was some kind of meteor that crashed into the Everfree forest!” “A meteor?” Twilight asked, then her eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh! Do you all know how lucky we all are!? If it was a smidge bigger, all life in Equestria, neigh, the whole world would’ve been wiped out!” Pinkie groaned in mild frustration. “It wasn’t a meteor, it was an alien spaceship, look!” The pink earth pony pointed in the direction of the Everfree forest, where a large amount of smoke was billowing from deep within, and a large orange glow could be seen. “Oh no...” Twilight said. “I hope Zecora’s okay...” She turned to the rainbow mane pegasus. “Dash! Fly up and see how bad the damage is, we gotta put out that fire!” Dash saluted and flew up to the sky. She returned a few minutes later coughing and wheezing for air. “I can’t get close to the Everfree!” She gasped. “The air is filled with some kind of poison.” “Duh!” Pinkie said. “That’s the fuel from the alien spaceship being burned from the fire.” Twilight sighed. “Pinkie, how do you know it’s a spaceship?” “Because I saw its silhouette as it fell from the sky!” She answered. “And it was definitely not some big rock!” “Pinkie!” Dash said, agitated. “Spaceships are only in science fiction books, they don’t exist in real life!” Pinkie’s eyes went wide, but they quickly turned into a glare. “Say that again, Dashie. I dare you...” Moving between the two ponies before things got worse, Twilight cleared her throat. “We can worry about what it actually was that crashed into the forest later, but right now, we need to do something about the fire that’s spreading across the forest!” The two mares nodded in agreement. “Pinkie,” The unicorn said. “Find Rarity. Dash, get Applejack, we’ll meet in Fluttershy’s cottage and see what we can do about the fire.” “What about the rest of the town?” Rainbow Dash asked, gesturing to the town where many ponies were scrambling to clean up the glass and other damages made to the town, while also glancing with worried expressions to the smoke. Twilight shook her head. “The rest of the town can handle things here, we gotta make sure that fire doesn’t get out of control.” The mares nodded, and split off to find their friends.
Chapter 3: Debris“Darn it, Applebloom!” Applejack cried out to her sister. “Ah said stay inside!” The orange earth pony ran out of the house after her little sister, who protested. “But Applejack!” “No buts! We don’t know what caused this, now git back inside with Granny while Big Mac and I try to figure this out!” Applejack said as she caught with Applebloom and stopped dead in her tracks, she stared perplexed at a large metal object stuck deep into the ground in front of her. “What in tarnation is that?” Applebloom asked, stepping towards it, before AJ stepped in front of her. “Don’t git too close to it, Applebloom.” Even from here, she could feel a lot of heat radiating from it. Her eyes glanced toward a bright red form next to her. “Any idea what this is, Big Mac?” She asked. Her elder brother shook his head. “Nnnnope!” He said. “AJ!” A voice called out, causing the earth pony to look in the direction of Ponyville, there she saw Rainbow Dash flying towards. “Rainbow!” AJ called back, waving. “Do you know what’s goin’ on?” “Something crashed into the Everfree forest,” The pegasus answered, landing next to AJ. “She wants us to- Woah!” That was when she noticed the metal object in the ground. “Yikes!” She said. “I guess Pinkie was right, it must’ve been a spaceship...” “A what-now!?” AJ asked, confused but Rainbow simply shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, look, there’s a fire raging out of control in the Everfree, and Twilight wants us to meet her at Fluttershy’s so we can figure out how to put it out.” “A fire?” AJ looked over into town, and saw the large amount of smoke and the orange glow emanating from the forest that sent shivers up her spine. “Sweet Celestia...” The earth pony turned to Big Mac. “Take Applebloom inside, an’ make sure she doesn’t git out again. I’ll go help Twi and the others to help fix this mess.” “Eeeeyep!” Big Mac answered, herding a protesting Applebloom back toward the house. With that, AJ galloped after Rainbow Dash, heading back towards Ponyville. In the heart of the town, a door slammed open, surprising a nearby gold-maned grey pegasus and causing her to stumble into two other ponies who were nearly finished cleaning up the glass. Emerging from the door, was a pure white unicorn with a spikey blue mane and huge, oversized glasses. “ALRIGHT!” Vinyl Scratch called out to nopony in particular. “WHERE’S THE DJ THAT CAUSED THIS, CAUSE I WANT THAT DJ’S AUTOGRAPH! AND HIS OR HER SOUND SYSTEM THAT CAUSED THIS!” “Vinyl!” A high-class voice called out from behind the unicorn. Octavia stepped out, nervously stepping over any nearby glass shards, before glaring at Vinyl. “What?” The unicorn DJ asked. “Do you see what happened here? Think what I could with a sound system THIS powerful!” Octavia shuddered. “I’d rather not...” “It wasn’t a DJ.” The grey pegasus said, causing both ponies to look at her. “Ditzy?” Octavia asked. “What do you mean?” “I heard Pinkie Pie tell Rarity that it was some kind of spaceship that crashed into the Everfree forest.” Vinyl scoffed. “Really? A spaceship? Come on... Even you, Derpy, have to admit that is beyond stupid.” Ditzy glared at the DJ, which caused her to hold back a chuckle at the pegasus’ eyes. Ditzy simply pointed a hoof toward the forest, and plume of smoke and orange glow. Vinyl stared, lowering her glasses, partially revealing her wide red eyes as she got a better look at it, and whistled. “Well, buck me...” She said. “How come that wasn’t the first thing we noticed?” Octavia asked. Before Vinyl could make any kind of response, Rainbow Dash flew by, knocking over the DJ. “Gangway!” The rainbow maned pegasus called out. “Coming through!” “Sorry!” Applejack said as she ran by. “Emergency!” Vinyl got up before Octavia could even move to help her. “Watch where ya fly, you damned Pegasus!” Vinyl yelled, shaking her hoof at Dash. As Twilight came into view of Fluttershy’s cottage, she gasped to she saw that even the cottage was hit by the soundwave of the explosion. She galloped, worried for the emotionally fragile pegasus. As she came closer, her nose caught a scent that nearly made her gag. It smelled awful and... artificial and wrong. She ignored it when she saw Fluttershy in the field , tending to something on the ground. “Fluttershy!” She called out, causing the pegasus to jump and squeal in surprise and fear. She whirled around and, upon seeing Twilight, burst into tears. “Twilight!” She said as she nearly tackled the unicorn in an embrace, crying in her shoulder. Twilight returned the embrace and spoke in a comforting voice. “It’s okay, I’m here and the others are on their way...” “T-t-the explosion scared all the critters...” Fluttershy sniffled. “All the b-birds flew into the air, but then they all fell and now they’re... they’re...” Fluttershy broke down again and cried harder. Twilight then remembered the stench that filled her nose and remembered that Rainbow couldn’t fly very high because the air was filled with some kind of poison... “I’m so, so sorry Fluttershy...” She said, holding her a little tighter. “But, once the others get here, we’ll find a way to stop this. I promise.” Fluttershy sniffled again, before looking to see Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow and AJ running over to them. “Is everything alright, darlings?” Rarity asked, her eyes filled with concern. “No,” Twilight answered, turning to face her friends. “We have to move to stop this! Before any more damage is done!” She was mad, mad to see Fluttershy in such a broken state. It pained everypony to see Fluttershy so hurt. They made their way inside the cottage silently, sedately. Even Pinkie had stopped her bouncing, and glanced back to Fluttershy every now and then. As Fluttershy slowly shut the door behind her, Rainbow Dash scrunched her nose. “The air here smells exactly like the poison higher up except not as strong and overpowering.” She said. “What could possibly cause such a horrid stench?” Rarity asked. “The fuel from the spaceship, like I said before.” Pinkie answered. “Pinkie...” Twilight said, about to question her before AJ spoke. “Twi, I think Pinkie may be right. Over by the farm, me an’ Big Mac saw this huge piece of metal sticking deep into the ground, an’ it was hot, even from a distance. Wasn’t natural either, somethin’ made that.” “If it’s an alien ship...” Rainbow said. “Does that mean this is some sort of attack?” Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think crashing a ship would be an attack. If it was a ship that crashed, it was probably a terrible, terrible accident.” “I hope the aliens are okay...” Fluttershy said quietly. “Hey, maybe they deserved it, for all we know.” Rainbow said. “These aliens could be complete jerks who probably would’ve invaded us anyways!” “We’re jumping to conclusions, everypony!” Twilight said, walking over to the window overlooking the forest. “Right now, there’s a fire burning wildly in the forest and, if we don’t do something soon, the whole forest could burn down, and spread to the town itself. We have to find a way to stop this before it’s too late.” Everypony nodded in agreement. “How are we gonna do that?” AJ asked. “I have a few spells that might be able to do the trick,” Twilight answered. “But it all depends on how bad the damage is already.” She turned to her friends, horn glowing before a flash filled the room for a second. When it vanished, all the ponies rubbed their eyes, before looking to see a purple aura glowing from them. Twilight had the same aura, and sniffed the air, before smiling. “Woah, Twilight!” Rainbow said. “What did you do?” “It’s a protection spell,” The unicorn answered. “Now we can enter the forest without having to worry about the heat from the fire or the poisonous air. If you’ll notice, you can’t smell the stench from the fuel.” Rainbow sniffed the air, and breathed deep. “Oh, it feels so good to smell fresh air again!” “My my my, darling!” Rarity said, examining her forehoof and the purple glow all around her. “You’re magical talent certainly has improved.” “I know, years ago I wouldn’t have dared try anything this complex.” “But...” Rarity hesitated. “Does it have to purple? No offense, but this aura colour doesn’t really match with my fur.” “Ah, quit yer whinin’!” AJ said. “If it protects us, that’s good enough fer me.” “Let’s make our way to the forest, girls!” Twilight said, running out the door followed by her friends. Flames burned all around the trees next to the wrecked hull of the cruiser. A rumble was heard inside, and then a bang, and then a large door slowly opened part way, where numerous shapes of twisted human life forms emerged, howling at the flames and the forest.
