Luna’s moon shone above, casting solemn light over the orchard, its crater-pocked surface, and the dark imprint of the mare in the moon, seemed to shimmer as it moved through the sky… Dusk had just fallen, the last notes of the diurnal birds could be heard, mixing with the first notes of the nocturnal birds, the quiet and all-encompassing orchestra accompanied by the dark organ-tones of owls, and even a few tweets from the fruit bats, who felt like joining in on the avian harmony. Big Macintosh, he wasn’t the smartest, or strongest, or nicest pony in Equestria… Even if his sister would argue… But he liked music, he liked the night, and even if few others did, he liked the story of Nightmare Moon… Vague memories of his mother reciting that tale to him as a colt still lingered in his mind, it was one of the few memories of his parent he had, and that story was still his favourite… Luna, the traitor, who betrayed Equestria, a quite and grim soul, constantly overshadowed by her sister… Somehow, as crazy as it would seem to others, Big Mac sympathized with her, even if he would never know the princess in person… Or even if there was any guarantee that she actually existed in the first place… The tale was old, only Celestia herself would know if any of it was real or not, and the stallion would never have the courage to actually talk to that legendary figure… Sure, the Summer Sun Celebration was coming up soon, just a month or so away at this point.

To take his mind off memories of his parents, or the princesses, or other such grim things, the stallion turned his attention to the grove, the harvest was looking good this year, the fruit was red, pristine, and almost ripe, just a few weeks, four, possibly five, and they would be perfect for this year’s batch of hard apple cider- Something moving just beyond his perception stole the buck’s attention, something dark was moving across the sky… Looking up, he saw the glimmers of the stars seeming to blackout and reappear at odd times… It wasn’t a bird or bat, he would normally be able to hear such things… But it was dead quiet… In fact, he couldn’t hear a thing, not a rodent on the ground, not a bird nor bat in the sky, not even the smallest of insects, just his hooves on the ground, and even that noise died when he moved to listen. It was all just, void.

There was something out there, he didn’t quite know how he knew, but there was, just a strange feeling, like… Like a unicorn, charging a spell right in front of you, he had felt that before, that surge of magical energy, he envied the unicorn, he wanted to cast spells like one… This was close to that feeling, but it was different, less focused, less powerful, and less emotional, in fact, this magical energy, if that was even what this pressure was, was completely emotionless…

He turned, staring deeper into the grove… Eyes, purple, bright, strange… Then they were gone, the stallion blinked, trying to figure out if that was real or not… “Nope…” He quietly muttered, deciding that, regardless if it was real or not, this, whatever this was, whether it was just anxiety or something very real, he didn’t want to be out here tonight, the mood was well and truly crushed, and he really, really wanted to be back inside, with his sister and grandmother… He slowly moved back in the direction of the barn, listening intently for anything… Then, there was a sharp feeling in his skull, like a brief but intense pain, quickly followed by the complete absence of feeling, almost like being drunk, his mind ached, but not, it was just and void, a strange void… He tried to run, to sprint back to the barn with all his might, but his legs just wouldn’t respond, he could still feel them, but they were just, dead, like he was no longer in control… Then, he closed his eyes, and regardless how hard he tried, he couldn’t open them back up again…

He could still feel, but feeling was slowly fading from his body... He could still hear, but sound was slowly fading from his body… He heard something moving around him, he heard it’s hoofsteps on the grass, not the clop-clop of a pony, but more like the pitter-patter of a rabbit or dog, and from what he heard, it sounded like, whatever it was, had three legs and walked unevenly… Again, the stallion tried to kick out, but he couldn’t feel his legs any more, and that numbness was slowly passing up through his body… He heard more of the three-legged creatures closing around him, he was scared, he tried to call out, tried to scream for his sister, but his mouth just wouldn’t respond… Then, there came a hissing sound, not like a snake, but more like boiling water inside a kettle, it was short, just a small hiss and some kind of whir, then his sense of sound was gone, but feeling still remained… So he felt as strange claws, of some kind grabbed on to him, many claws, all around him, like giant spiders, they lifted him up, and he felt himself being slowly lowered into… A thick, sticky, water-like fluid, like a barrel of apple juice right before it goes to be fermented… Then, finally, feeling left him, and in the few moments before unconsciousness claimed him, his mind was left to go wild with all the horrible thoughts about what could have just happened to him… Was he eaten, swallowed whole, was he about to drown, had he fallen into a small lake, would he survive… And if he didn’t, would his sister even find out?

“Mom… Mommy, are you there?” Big Mac thought, he was dead, he had to be dead, this feeling of complete emptiness couldn’t be anything else… But everything was black, he didn’t know what the afterlife was like, but it couldn’t just be this endless blackness, devoid of all feelings and presence, this couldn’t be death, he wanted to see his mom again, if he was actually dead, he would see his mom, he would finally see her bright orange coat again, smell her sweet sents, hear her alicornesque voice… But there was no seeing, no smelling, no hearing… Oddly though, there was feeling, a faint, distant feeling, like air brushing against him after getting out of a bath, warm water soaking his back and flanks… Hours passed, or perhaps they were seconds, he couldn’t tell at this point, but the feelings grew stronger, he could feel the tips of his hooves, they were resting against metal, half-submerged in liquid.

No, no he wasn’t dead, far from dead, he was still alive… Part of him was relieved, part of him was still worried as his last memories from before consciousness left him had returned, and very small and grim part of him was disappointed… He would have to wait before seeing his mother’s face again.

Second to return was his hearing, despite being half-submerged, his ears could still make out sounds, there was a humming, some beeping, some strange noises, like a strange clicking, going back and forth, like speech, not that the stallion could actually recognize any words… Then, as his body slowly awakened, he was able to open his eyes… At first, all he could see was green, but slowly he started to see things a little clearer… He was lying flat on his back, belly in the air, hooves splayed out, he tried to move them, but found they were clamped shut, and he started to panic… He looked and found himself in some kind of room, the ceiling was made from some slick metal that shined like oil, there were plenty of lights built into it, but they didn’t seem like torches, or candles, or even magical crystals… His bed… If you could call it that, was some kind of platform with a large indent in it… It didn’t look like it was built for ponies, or even by ponies, it looked more like some kind of torture device for adolescent dragons. His fear and unease grew, and with each new thing in the room he saw, this only doubled.

There were, pods of some kind, filled with green fluid, inside were ponies, unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, griffons, and all sorts of other creatures…Stories came into Macintosh’s mind, stories about Changelings, strange insects that captured you, drained your magic, would come for you in the night if you were a bad colt or filly and steal your soul… “Bu-But they were just a pony’s tail, they were just a story,” He tried to convince himself, repeating that in his mind over and over again, but the more felt, the more he saw, the less he believed himself.

A noise was growing closer, like a hissing breath… In the stallion’s mind, he wondered what changelings looked like, he knew they were bugs the size of ponies, but he couldn’t remember more than that… How did they steal your soul, t-they used magic, right, it wasn’t going to be painful, just… Just horrible… The stallion screwed his eyes shut, and whimpered, awaiting the sucking magic that would take his soul from his body, he was going to become food… It wasn’t going to hurt, he hoped… The hissing breath came closer, inch by inch, but curiosity clawed at his mind, and he gained the courage to open his eyes, just a little… In truth, he expected some horrible maw with a thousand gnashing teeth or a serpent’s mouth with poisonous fangs or an ant’s claw-like pincers grasping at his head… What he actually saw was none of these things, in some ways it was better, in some ways, it was worse...

A tall creature, some kind of animal that walked on two legs, dressed in a fine red robe, like the kind priests used to wear… The only thing that could be seen of its head was a silver helmet, the only opening around the muzzle, but there was no equine muzzle or avian beak, just blackness underneath that helmet… And a powerful magical pressure, like an entire choir of unicorns all casting the same spell at once, but unlike pony magic, this feeling, this power, was completely devoid of the emotional background that came with it. “W-What are you! What do you want with me! Where am I!” Big Mac said, panicked, but logical, trying his best to not give into the fear in the back of his mind, telling him, demanding him, to whimper and cower away from this… Thing…

The creature didn’t answer… From underneath its robe, it rose a single, grey, skinny, almost rotted arm, long with wicked dragon-like claws at the end… And did something… Something that Macintosh didn’t understand, like pressing a button made from a magical illusion… There was a series of grinding, hissing, and whirring noises, and above him, a machine of some kind came out of the wall and moved, slowly and ominous, toward Macintosh’s face, it looked like a mouth and from inside a magical pressure grew and grew until it became painful, the stallion screwed his eyes shut, tears flowing from his face, screaming as pain inside his head, like a million headaches, but worse, far far worse, like a drill into his very mind, erupted inside him… It hurt, hurt so bad you couldn’t even think, and just went on and on… On and on… On and on… Until all feeling left him, save for the distant feeling of pain, that every second grew further and further away, and he grew closer and closer to a familiar feeling, the feeling of his mother’s fur and her sweet voice...

Author's Note

I've made 3 chapters so far, don't expect frequent updates, but I'll try to put them out ASAP for you. Hope you enjoy... Next chapter we get to the actual invasion.