Chapters Author's Note
Just to clarify to all of you if you’re wondering, no this is not the original H.G Well’s story but with ponies, this is my original Wotw story that takes place in the MLP: FIM universe, and yes it will ofc include our lovable tripod’s, also this is my first time using the mane 6 characters, so please tell my in the comments if there are any inaccuracies, that will be all, feel free to criticize but DON’T BE MEAN ABOUT IT.
The shooting star.
The Shooting Star.
It was late at night, most of the ponies in ponyville were either asleep or about to be, but one particular pony just couldn’t find a way for herself to get to sleep, there was this nagging feeling that something bad was about to happen, but she couldn’t figure out why. Because seriously what was going to happen that was SOO bad the she had a gut feeling about it, she still didn’t know and she was losing sleep, so she decided that looking at the stars with her telescope was a slightly good idea, but little did she know that doing so would confirm her gut feeling about some horrible unforeseen events…ok not really, but it would confirm why her gut feeling even existed in the first place.
She went to her attic and started locating her trusty telescope and found it by a nearby pile, “Wow has it really been that long since last time I used it?” She thought out loud to herself, yes it had actually been that long since she used it, two years to be exact, every since she moved out of her parents house she decided to take the telescope with her simply because that very telescope was a big part of her childhood, she and her dad would stare at the stars with it for a few hours until her father would decide it was time to go to bed, and now after two years she’s finally gonna use it again.
To be honest she would be a bit more excited if it wasn’t the most boring time for “Star-Watching” as her dad called it, nothing but a couple of flickering stars here and there, like come on! Where are the extra bright stars! Where are the SHOOTING stars! Over time she decided if nothing happened for the next 2-3 minutes she would give up and go to bed, but that’s when she remembered that going to bed was the reason why she was doing this in the first place, stupid energy making her forget! It’s been two minutes and she is about to head off, until… “wait a minute..what is..that?!”, she said, what she was indeed looking at was a bright green shooting star, the reason why she was surprised was because in her years of star-watching she only seen white or blue shooting stars, but this one…this one is bright green!
“What in Celestia’s name are you?” She said with pure confusion and with a little pinch of curiosity, not only was the thing bright green, but the fact it was getting brighter was also a bit confusing, but then it just got brighter…and brighter…and brighter, until she realized why…the thing was hurdling towards their planet! That’s when she started to panic, where was it hurdling towards to?! How big was it?! Was it a meteorite or an asteroid?! But before she could come up with another panicked thought, all of a sudden…..
*BOOOM*
She then realized that whatever that was, had just made it’s collision, she was about to look out her window and investigate, but she then started thanking celestia for the fact that all they got was a shockwave, a big one at that but still just a shockwave and not the mere apocalyptic destruction of their world, she finally looked out her window and noticed a bright orange glow along with smoke coming out of the infamous Everfree forest, she then concluded that whatever it was had made it’s impact in the forest.
She also noticed that she was no longer the only one awake now, and that other ponies were now beginning to investigate the crash site, well at least she wasn’t going in alone, so as quickly as she could she dashed out of her house and joined the crowed of ponies that were as equally confused and terrified (if not down right) about what just happened, but little did they know that the more they trotted over to the crash site, the more closer they were to their impending doom.
When she got to the crowed she not only had noticed that the mane 6 were with the crowed but also three royal guards, 2 staillions and 1 mare, they seem to be leading the crowed into the direction of the crash site, the guardsmare seem to be a little scared by looking into her eyes but still had a little bravery as she and the other two guards continued to lead, she started to feel the gut feeling again that something bad was about to happen, but she ignored it mostly out of curiosity (first mistake) and continued with the crowed, while she proceeded with the crowed she started to hear ponies making up theory’s as they went along.
“What do you think it is?”
“Is it aliens?”
“No it can’t be aliens, they don’t exist!”
“Well what do you think it is?”
“Probably some stray meteorite”
The conversation was starting to get ridiculous so she didn’t listen any further and continued to wherever the crowed was being led to, it took 15 minutes to get close to it, and for some unknown reason the Everfree forest was oddly quiet save for the chitchatting of some of the ponies in the crowed, she brushed it off thinking it was because the impact of whatever this is scared the creature’s off. They had finally made it to the source of the crash, and the crater it caused was big like REALLY big, it didn’t take long for her to start questioning a million things along with other ponies, the first thought that came to mind was “how in Tartarus did this things impact only cause a mere shockwave?!” She thought to herself, and by the shocked look of the other ponies faces she automatically guessed that they thought the same thing to.
While they kept talking one of the guard’s yelled to all of them, “Quiet all of you!”, the guard yelled, “listen…” the guard told them a bit quieter this time, they all listened and tried to hear whatever the guard had told them to listen to, and then they heard it, it was coming from under the ground and despite being muffled because of it she and the others knew it was a machine, something from it started moving and then she heard a hissing sound and kept hearing more things moving and hissing and while this is happening some wind starts picking up out of nowhere, but then the fifth and final hiss goes off beneath them and then nothing, the wind becomes more aggressive as it can get and they finally start looking to see what’s causing this, it takes a couple of seconds until they finally look up and see that a storm cloud has managed to form without any of them noticing.
And then a lightning bolt hits the ground about 20 or so times before stoping abruptly, after nearly getting a heart-attack from the first strike by being jump-scared to oblivion, she and the other ponies move up to the crater once again but cautiously this time, when the look into the crater again they realize that little to nothing changed…aside from the fact that a giant ass crater is in front of them, as their trying to look for any changes they start to feel something….something familiar…the ground is starting to shake, after this sudden occurrence the crowed began to panic.
“What’s going on?!”
“I don’t bucking know!”
“I don’t remember any reports about earthquakes!”
“Everypony stay calm!”
“HOW?!”
As the crowed continues to panic a tree gets thrown out of the crater, catching the crowed’s attention rather quickly as it began to fall right for them, they quickly scrambled trying to get out of its way, as the tree collided to the ground the crowed quickly put their attention back to the crater as more things got flung out of it, from rocks to sticks to more trees to just plain dirt, it seemed as time went on things made less sense. Bright green meteorites or astroids (they still didn’t know), small earthquakes and storm clouds that appear out of nowhere, lightning that strikes in the same place 20 times, debris getting flung out of giant ass crater’s, WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON?!
The ground was shaking more violently then before, with the ground starting to break open, trees swaying to the left and to the right, the crowed of ponies now scrambling like a bunch of ants now more terrified than confused, the shaking begins to die down but doesn’t stop, the crater has collapsed and is now filled with dirt and debris, everypony backs away from the crater after everything that’s happened, and then (quote of the day) all of a sudden the dirt and debris rises quickly catching the crowds attention, then it proceeds to go back down as quickly as it rose causing an explosion of dirt, what happens next catches the crowd off guard rather quickly, a giant tentacle like leg rises up from the debris & dirt filled crater and what appears to be its foot steps onto the ground and proceeds to rise again and stomps on the ground more forcefully this time.
Then on the left a second leg rises and a third leg behind the first two, they do the same as the first leg, the second and third leg forcefully stomp on the ground and then they just….stop. The two royal guards along with the crowed move up to the legs as silently as possible, one of the guards is able to look into the crater and notices the pile of dirt still remaining inside of it, she then looks closer…and closer and stops when she realizes something, the dirt is beginning to rise again and more slowly this time, but this time…..it’s not stopping.
The dirt kept rising slowly with no sign of stopping, the three legs still remaining idle with ponies watching with curious eyes, it seemed any remaining fear was no longer present within the crowed as they continued to watch, the two royal guards backed up quickly as they and the other ponies slowly started hearing the sound of something powering up as the pile of dirt starting rising, not only in height but in speed to, as the dirt kept rising now starting to rise above the crater, the dirt slid off revealing something underneath, that something being the source of the legs.
A giant machine, with each inch it passed as it rose the machine managed to look bigger every second, that’s when the ponies started to run in the opposite direction, constantly looking back every second, when they did they kept seeing it rise and rise AND RISE! Until it stopped, when it stopped so did the ponies, when they stopped to look back at the machine, they were mixed between awe, shock, and horror when they saw the full height, the damn thing was taller then the Everfree forest! By looking closely, some ponies figured out to their horror that the three legged machine was 150 ft tall! It was almost colossal to them, but before they could do anything else, the machine proceeded to emit a horrible war-horn that sounded like it could be heard from miles! Everypony immediately flinched when the sound went off, however immediately right after the horn went off, steam came out of the both sides of the machines head followed by what looked to be two arms coming out of both sides of the head as well, as if the machine materialized the arms in thin air.
While this is happening, a pegasus mare by the name of Starshine was watching it all unfold upon her very eyes, calculating every single little movement the machine made almost as if her life depended on it, little did she know that statement wouldn’t be to far from the truth, but she quickly averted her eyes towards an earth pony mare who seemed to have a camera, ‘she must be ponyville’s photographer’ Starshine thought to herself, after she quickly noted the bravery of the mare for being that close to the machine, she quickly looked back to the machine- ok she was getting tired of calling it machine every gosh damn time, she needed to think of a name but not now, she continued looking at the machine seeing it pulling out its arms, then she started hearing a noise, a noise not all that familiar but she still slightly understood what it meant.
Something was powering up or charging up, when she heard it she almost automatically knew the arms had something to do with this sound, it as if something clicked in her mind like a lightbulb turned on while hovering over her head, but something came back to her, a feeling of dread, a feeling that is telling her to get out of there and run as far as she can before something HORRIBLE ensues, but she could not find herself to move, it was like some apparition was paralyzing her to stay in this very position, she looked at the photographer mare as she held up her camera, the charging sound the machine emitted was reaching its peak, the mare took a single photo with a quick flash, and just like that…the machine reached its peak.
*ZAAP*
In just a blink of an eye, a beam of neon light struck the mare turning her into ash leaving nothing but her camera behind, any feeling of paralyzation got thrown to the void and Starshine BOLTED in the opposite direction as well as the other ponies, left and right beams of neon light kept flickering as pony after pony after pony turned to ash in mere seconds, the machine just stood there as it individually picked each of the ponies off one by one, Starshine was at the point of tears, she had never felt this much fear since the canterlot invasion from the changelings, this..this THING was different, unlike the changelings which feed off of love, this machine was actively KILLING EVERYTHING IT SAW.
Starshine kept running with tears in her eyes, she looked to her left and saw a quick neon beam shoot at the forest, no doubt originally targeting ponies, causing half of the forest to set a blaze and causing Starshine to start running faster almost to the point of sprinting, the more she kept running the more everything around started to fall apart, quite literally in fact, now she saw nothing but burning tree’s, heard nothing but the sounds of screaming ponies running for their dear life, with most being unsuccessful in the process, Starshine decided to hide behind a rock praying to celestia herself that she wouldn’t be seen by this machine, but that’s when a thought struck her, ‘does Celestia know about this?’ She thought to herself, but her thoughts were cut short when she started hearing a sound that started to repeat itself, she risked her safety by looking behind the rock and towards where the machine was.
The machine started to walk, the sound it was creating was ominous, repetitive, and dreadful, at least that’s how Starshine saw it, it continued to move across the forest looking for more ponies to torch, that’s when a magical beam came out of nowhere and hit the machine on the head, the magic bounced off of it like it was just shot at with a wooden bow! It INSTANTLY looked at the direction where it was shot at and yep, her fears were true, it was the three royal guards trying their absolute hardest to fight and kill it, the second she saw the magic bounce off of it she new it was a lost cause, and sure enough..a single zap and a few screams were all it took to prove that, she noticed that the fire was getting close to her so she decided while it wasn’t looking she would dash to somewhere more safe and warn Everypony else of the machine.
But she then started to finally think of a name for it, but not just for the sake of it, but rather a name that Everypony could know so they could know what to say when one arrived, and she finally came with a conclusion, Tripod was going to be its name from now on, as she was looking around to see if the tripod was still in the forest she noticed the mane 6 going down a certain route in a certain direction, a direction she knew all to well, they were going to Canterlot most likely to inform Princess Celestia of the tripod, so that we could possibly defeat it, but then she started wondering something, why weren’t they going to Ponyville first? It’s closer and since the town is smaller, it would not only be easier but quicker, but not even a single half of the mane 6 we’re going to Ponyville, nope they were all going to Canterlot, which but the job on Starshine.
She now knew what her mission was, she had to get there as fast as possible, to warn Ponyville, to evacuate citizens, and most importantly…
To prevent a massacre.
Author's Note
Another day, another chapter! Despite the fact it’s one day late, I tried to get this out as soon as possible, so sorry guys. However I also got my internet back so I no longer have to use a hotspot! And if your wondering: yes these are the 2005 tripods from Spielberg, and Starshine is the name of my OC, guess I should put the tag somewhere up there, but anyways thanks for reading and have a good day, feel free to criticize but DON’T BE MEAN ABOUT IT!
Author's Note
Hey! finally the third chapter…..
I’m so sorry this took forever. I’ll make sure future chapters come out quicker, but I probably won’t guarantee it. Also could some of you kindly give me a name for the guard please? It took me awhile to come up with Emberlane but I cant seem to come up with a good name for the guard, so please comment it and a will choose one, or don’t….your choice.
Also I apologize if there’s already a canon character or an OC with the name Ember, I’m just coming up with characters and names *SNAPS* just like that, so take these names and descriptions with a grain of salt.
The Ponyville massacre.
—————
Past
Luna was walking down one of many hallway’s in the Canterlot castle, she was going to ask her sister something but was informed by one of the guards the Celestia was currently in her room, “in her room? What could she be in there for, it’s not exactly time to go to sleep yet” she wondered out loud, so she decided to go to her sisters room because of her “curiosity” when in reality she just wanted to just because, however when she got there she heard something odd, a secondary voice and by listening a little more the voice seems to belong to a male creature, “are you sure this is a good plan?” The male voice spoke in a questioning tone, “yes i’am sure of it, I can’t have my little ponies catch sight of you or your kind” said a much more familiar voice….aka Celestia, wait why can’t their kind be seen? Another question appeared in her mind, wait..their kind? Does that mean another creature is in there? If so then who are they and why can’t they be seen? Before she could come up with another thought she heard the voice say something else, “alright if you say so, but if there’s anything causing trouble you know how to contact us, but remember only if ABSOLUTELY necessary” it said making sure the “absolutely” part was well heard for Celestia, “I will remember, don’t you worry” Celestia said in that commonly reassuring tone of hers, “alright just making sure, I’ll see you whenever you need us” and just like that she heard a sparkling sound and then a poof sound, Luna decided it was a good time to knock on the door.
“Who’s there?” Celestia asked on the other side.
“It’s me sister” Luna confirmed.
“Oh Luna! Please come in” Celestia said on the other side.
After getting permission to do so Luna walked in, making sure to close the door behind her.
“What brings you here Luna?” Celestia asked.
“I was going to check on you, but I heard another voice, who was it?” Luna asked.
It seemed that after this question Celestia’s mind began racing until ending it off with what sounded like a defeated sigh.
“Fine I’ll tell you, you deserve to know after along time” Celestia said, why Celestia was acting like Luna asked this question multiple times in the past was all her guess.
“Deserve to know what?” Luna asked.
“Sister….have you heard of the human’s?” Celestia asked
———————
Present
Starshine was still running to Ponyville, she feared what would happen at that town which caused her to run even faster which was beginning to hurt her hooves at this point but she didn’t care, she wanted to get Everypony to safety before the horrid inevitable, the lack of sound she heard from the tripod was beginning to increasingly concern her, she kept thinking that she was already to late and the tripod already made it to Ponyville but instead what she saw surprised her.
Ponyville was still normal, and by normal I mean not in total chaos, you know, no ponies running around in every direction while every house is in flames burning to a crisp, while the tripod victoriously stands above it all, silently watching it all ensue, no what she DID see was ponies who managed to survive the first attack run out of the Everfree with her in an equal state of panic and fear, Everypony in the town looked at all of them with a look of both confusion and extreme worry, but that was when Starshine saw a familiar face and a close friend, Rose, no not the rose you’re all familiar with, no a different rose, this rose had a pure white Coat (like redhearts) and a blood red mane and tail and her cutie mark strangely being what looked to be like a….portal? Yeah I’m not going to ask either.
“Hey Starshine…why is Everypony acting so scared?” Rose asked with a mostly confused tone with a little bit of worry.
“Rose we need to warn Everypony NOW” Starshine demanded.
“Woah, woah hold on I still have so many questions right now, like for example..WHY IS EVERYPONY RUNNING OUT SCREAMING LIKE THEY SAW GHOSTS?! And why are there only five ponies coming out at a time? There were like 15 of you in that forest COUNTING twilight and her friends!” It seemed like Rose was about to continue her jumble of questions but Starshine quickly put a hoove to her face.
“I’ll answer your questions later, but first we need to get Everypony out of Ponyville to a place more safe!” Starshine said.
“Ok fine, what’s your plan? I mean it’s not like the entirety of Ponyville is gonna listen to just the two of us, and last time a checked twilight and her friends haven’t come back so it’s not like they can do or say anything.” Rose stated.
“Ok fine” Starshine admitted, “I may not have a plan, but we need to come up with something QUICKLY, we don’t have much time” Starshine exclaimed with a hurried tone, Rose had no idea what her friend was talking about, but thanks to Starshines face of fear she decided to save the questions for later, because for some reason, some dangerous threat is upon them, which was the first thing she assumed.
Rose could only guess what it was, but it had to be a REAL threat if it was causing this much panic….great now she has a sense of dread she can’t get rid of, wonderful am I right? Surprisingly enough Starshine and Rose ran all the way to the train station, Starshine appeared to be quickly counting all the cars the train had and realized there were enough cars for the remaining ponies of Ponyville, if only they knew….
Starshine proceeded to rapidly look around until she found what she was looking for, a ticket booth, strangely enough what appeared to be a guardsmare was also making her way towards the booth, ‘a royal guard? Why is she going for the booth can’t she fly?’ Starshine thought.
“Hey you!” Starshine yelled
“Hm? Oh hello!” The guard said, greeting them in a strangely cheerful tone, ‘shouldn’t she know what happened?’ Starshine thought. “Getting tickets as well, Canterlot I’m assuming?” The guard said.
“Yes Yes! We need to get to Canterlot now like RIGHT NOW” Starshine exclaimed
“Hey wait a second” Rose said, “why are you taking the train? Aren’t you a Pegasus?” Rose asked.
“Yeah well you see, I recently injured my right wing.” The guard said, showing her bandaged right wing, “about a day ago to be precise” the guard revealed. “And thanks to that fact, I now have to take the train”.
“I can imagine how time wasting that was for you.” Rose said.
“Oh you couldn’t imagine!” The guard exclaimed.
“Um girls?” Starshine said getting the other’s attention. “I’d love to have this chat, but we can’t right now, we need to get Everypony on this train so we can evacuate to Canterlot.” Starshine said.
“HA! I knew you were going to Canterlot!” The guard said in triumph. “Wait…..why are we evacuating?” The guard questioned, she didn’t get any specific orders to evacuate Everypony, so why is this civilian telling her this?
“Well let me put this in the most calm and polite way possible…*GASP*…THERE IS A GIANT THREAT THATS COMING HERE AND ITS GONNA KILL US ALL IF WE DONT LEAVE!” Starshine said rather politely.
“Whoa whoa slow down there, a giant threat?” Rose asked, she knew the threat levels was big but she didn’t know it would be literal. However before Starshine could say anything, a groan from what sounded like a mare made itself known inside the booth, arose what looked liked to be said mare, the mare having a bright orange mane and tail while having red coat. Judging from the bags under her eyes it became clear that she just woke up.
“Alright what’s goin— didn’t they see me sle—“ the mare appeared to be mumbling most of what she was saying, however it wasn’t until she looked at the three that she finally said something clearly.
“You three need something?” The booth mare said with her voice oblivious filled with the ‘I don’t want to be here right now’ tone. The three looked at the booth mare until the mare spoke again, “you need something or not?” The booth mare said now sounding like she’s getting annoyed with the lack of answers, Starshine decided to be the first to speak.
“Hello my name is Starshine, this is Rose, and this is…” she was going to introduce the guard but the guard silently declined the introduction. “And you are?” Starshine said clearly asking for the mares name.
“Names Emberlane, but you can call me ember for short, now do you need something?” Emberlane said sounding like she’s trying to end the conversation in the quickest way possible. But of course that wasn’t going to happen.
“Alright” Starshine said looking over at the guard, “you’re a guardsmare right?” The guard nodded her head, “that means if you order Everypony to get on this train, they will follow suit or something?” Starshine said, the guard giving her a reassuring look but also a questioning one.
“Yeah I’m pretty sure they’ll listen to me, but what exactly do you want me to tell them or better yet why do you want me to tell em?”
*stomp*
“Because of what I’ve been saying, there is a threat upon us!” Starshine said sounding like she expected the guard to know everything. But of course that wasn’t the case.
“Yea but what am I supposed to tell them?, that there is a threat coming to kill us all, because if you don’t give me a clear description of said threat, the civilian’s will probably not believe me.”
“I don’t have time to give you a clear description!”
*stomp*
“Well then just give her a small description.” Rose said not looking at Starshine or the guard, but rather she was looking amongst the crowed of ponies like she was looking for somepony.
“Fine! The threat has three legs and is 150 ft tall! There you have your description now TELL THEM!” Starshine said exclaiming the last part but not with a demanding tone but rather both a desperate one and a pleading one.
*STOMP*
“Alright there ya go, now we can evacuate for some reason that involves a 150 ft tall three legged thing..” Emberlane wasn’t sure whether to believe it or not but she had to admit, a giant three legged monster was a kinda scary thought.
*STOMP*
Rose was started to get agitated by the fact the she seemed to be the only one to notice the massive stomping sounds along with the ground rumbling, indicating that something BIG was getting close by the second, finally Rose shouted at them.
“DO YOU GIRLS SERIOUSLY NOT HEAR THA-“
BBWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOWAAAAAAAAAMMMMmmmMMH
Everypony immediately shut the hell up as the massive blaring war-horn came to a stop, even Emberlane was jolted from her exhaustion and was immediately wide awake, as Emberlane slowly walked outside the ticket booth joining the trio outside all four of them slowly looked to the town and saw…
A giant
150 ft tall
Three legged
Monster.
They and the rest of Ponyville all stared at the thing for what felt like a minute until finally…
*ZAAAAP*
The two arms on the side’s of its head finally shot beams of neon light, torching and destroying structures and disintegrating ponies left and right turning them to ash, it didn’t take long for the guardsmare as she quickly went into action, picking her spear she quickly got into her battle stance and was about to throw her spear but was stopped by a certain hoof.
“NO! You cant fight that thing!” Starshine yelled, “we need to get Everypony onto this train NOW!” Starshine pleaded, after hesitating the guard finally made the decision.
“EVERYPONY! EVACUATE TO THE TRAIN NOW HURRY!” The guard yelled, and soon a crowed of ponies made their way to the train, one by one they got on the train, Starshine and the guard looked and saw a total of 16 ponies inside, and no more ponies came, so they decided to get in themselves, but Starshine stopped as she saw Rose paralyzed with fear, she called out her name and waved a hoove in front of her face quickly snapping her friend out of the daze, once Rose snapped out of it she quickly followed Starshine inside the train.
The guardsmare ran through the cars of the train before reaching the driver of the train, he also seemed to be paralyzed with fear while watching the carnage being displayed before him, but the guard had other ideas.
“You! Get the train running through the secret passage NOW!” The guard ordered.
“We can’t use the secret passage, unless somepony pull’s that lever out there!” The driver said.
The guard thought until Ember came in.
“Can someone please explain why we aren’t moving?!” Emberlane yelled questioningly. And suddenly the guard had an idea, and a risky one at that.
“Ember I need you to pull that lever out there, if you do the tracks will turn in a direction leading us to the secret passage, do you think you can do it?” Emberlane had gears turning in her head, she thought about it until she finally came to a conclusion.
“I’ll do it” and just like that she ran out as fast as she could and went for the lever, she reached the lever and pulled as hard as she could, she kept pulling and pulling with the tripod’s destruction constantly going off in the back, and finally she pulled it completely and the tracks moved into the direction of the secret passage, she turned to see if the tripod was anywhere and found it looking the other direction completely, most likely ‘busy’.
Emberlane quickly ran back onto the train, doors closing behind her as the train started moving immediately, as the train turned the windows darkened as it entered the tunnels of the secret passage, the sounds of death and destruction behind them becoming more quieter and quieter until it was impossible to hear unless you listened very closely, Emberlane moved through the car she was in and eventually found the trio of ponies sitting on a single seat, as the guard noticed Ember she moved slightly to give room for Ember, with Ember kindly taking the offer, as she sat down multiple thoughts crossed her mind until she finally spoke, “what in Tartarus just happened? It all happened so quick I couldn’t keep up, we were talking, and then that THING appeared and just started killing…” Emberlane couldn’t finish that sentence as tears began to form but never falling out as she resisted the urge, “what even was that thing anyway? It didn’t resemble anything I’ve seen in my lifetime!” She didn’t get an answer, not even the guard would speak.
Emberlane looked through the car and saw more ponies, each and every one of them all filled with the faces of terror and dread, the one group that caught her eye was what looked to be a single mother and her kids, a filly and a colt, both whimpering despite the mother trying her hardest to calm them down and comfort them, ironically she was practically whimpering herself, she couldn’t blame her though, after what they’ve just been through the mother could bawl her eyes out and she still wouldn’t be surprised, however a certain pegasus on her left beat the mother to it.
She turned to her left and saw Starshine sobbing up a small waterfall with Rose comforting her, she looked to the guard, the only thing the guard could think of was give her a sympathetic look and gently pat her on the back, Rose noticed this.
“Sorry she’s just very sensitive” Rose said trying to lighten the mood, but she realized that the candle already burnt out long ago so there was no need to.
Emberlane looked back to the guard, she was going to ask for her name but stopped herself from doing so, feeling like it wasn’t an appropriate time to do so, eventually she had nowhere else to look but the floor, she kept thinking about the tripod invading canterlot what would they do then? Of course Canterlot is filled with royal guards so if Canterlot were to go down it wouldn’t without a fight, after all it’s just one right?
I mean there can’t be more than one right………..right?
The train kept moving through the tunnels, the tunnels lanterns quickly illuminating the trains windows before disappearing, despite being in a rather safe place not a single pony did or say anything, Ponyville…the one place these very ponies called home had just been destroyed and torched into flames and the ponies that didn’t make it on the train probably already died because of Gods knows what, that Tripod managed to enter the town without being seen and the moment the ponies looked at the tripod…it was already to late for them.
The train ride went on for what felt like hours, normally it wouldn’t be that way as going there on hoof would take a while but not certainly an hour, especially if you used a chariot, but these secret tunnels were supposed to be kept hidden in case of emergencies or events like this, and because of this it was usually the longest route to Canterlot, And finally after what felt like hours they had finally made it to Canterlot and to their surprise, it was already night time.
When Starshine, Rose, Ember, and the guard as well as the rest of the ponies trotted out of the train the first thing they noticed was how dead silent Canterlot was, so silent in fact the you could see the old paper flowing through the wind cliche, as they continued walking through the city they began to hear a noise, they closer they got to the noise the more clearer it got until they finally saw what was causing the noise.
It was a crowed of nobles and news ponies with cameras and microphones talking to none other then the solar princess herself, bombarding her with question after question.
“Do you have any idea what could cause such a phenomenon that was the lightning storm?”
“Was the earthquake we felt natural or could it have something to do with the storm?”
“Is something really attacking us?”
The questions kept adding up with Celestia trying her best to answer all of them the best she could, it was already clear to our squad that Celestia was as confused as they were of the situation, but unlike Celestia they knew what was the cause and they needed to warn her before said cause came strolling to Canterlot, locked and loaded, and ready to cause another massacre…Starshine looked back at the train they were just on, the screams of the unfortunate ponies still ringing in her mind, as if some unseen specter was mocking her, telling her that she couldn’t save them, and even when she continued to look..she could almost see the smoke of the now disintegrated Ponyville.
When Starshine looked back towards the crowed of ponies still asking continuous questions, she could see that both Celestia and Luna were both losing their patience with the crowed and in just a moment Luna would scream with her royal voice to shut up the crowed, and since Starshine didn’t want her ears assaulted she decided to step away from the crowed with Rose quickly glancing at her before following suit.
As Starshine kept walking away from the crowed, she tried to think of ways to tell the princesses and what words to use, as she was doing this she failed to notice her best friend Rose following her, Rose noticing the look of stress and terror on her friends face, didn’t want to keep it this way so she decided to speak up.
“Thinking about what to tell the princesses?” Rose said breaking the silence. Starshine had a quick look of surprise on her face before softening it.
“Yeah I guess you can say that, I just don’t know what to say to her without causing a mass panic.” Starshine answered, “the idea of a threat bigger then anything we faced before, destroying our homes and killing us off can cause even the most dead inside pony to panic, at least slightly”. Starshine continued.
“Well….why can’t you just tell Celestia in private?” Rose suggested.
“Really?! You of all ponies would know that a simple Pegasus like me will never get a reaction out of her, besides she already busy with like 100 nobles and news ponies as it is!” Starshine exclaimed.
“…Luna?” Rose once again suggested.
“……..”
The deadpan stare along with Starshine’s silence was all Starshine could give as an answer, and it seemed to work as Rose sighed and gave off a defeated expression.
STOMP
“Well if those don’t work, then I don’t see how we’re going to tell them”. Rose said.
“That’s what I was worried about! We’re trying to warn them of life threatening danger and we can’t even come up with an easy way of doing so!” Starshine exclaimed/complained.
STOMP
“Well like you said your a Pegasus why cant you just fly towards the princess?” Rose asked/suggested
“…guards?” Starshine said a bit annoyed by how somewhat idiotic these suggestions were, and now she feared that she was running out of ideas on how to tell them, she failed to warn the ponies of Ponyville but she wasn’t going to fail this time…she hoped. However they were so focused that they failed to notice…..Emberlane and the royal guard galloping towards them.
“What in Tartarus are you girls doing all the way out here?!” Ember asked.
“Yeah we were trying to find you girls in the crowed, please tell us next time.” The guard said.
Starshine sighed, “I’m sorry it’s just I was worried about what we were going to say to the princesses, I didn’t want to say something weird or bad or make the ponies think I was going mad.” Starshine finished.
Ember took a quick glance at a flock of birds flying above them before speaking, “I can understand that, I use to tell my teachers about things that I thought were serious but they never would believe me, it usually would be my classmates who would believe me simply because they were my age or higher or lower.” Ember explained.
“Wow you did all that back then? Let me guess which ones were true or false.” The guard said giggling a little.
Ember chuckled before answering, “yeah I was kind of a liar back then but usually it would range from made up stories to false beliefs on certain situations, and I think those stories were why I grew on th—“ before she could finish her sentence, she took a glance in front of them as she saw the birds hovering over something, her feel good face she formed when talking about past memories slowly shifted to absolute horror at what she saw.
Starshine, Rose, and the guard already knew what she was looking at, so they slowly turned their heads hoping to Celestia herself it wasn’t what they were thinking, but of course…..they were false hopes. Imagine this scenario, you undergoing your city’s mass destruction by a giant monster you didn’t even no existed, as your running, desperately trying to find an escape, you see the very monster wreaking havoc upon your city until….the monster stops and looks at YOU , your completely frozen, your an ANT compared to this thing, yet it’s putting its attention on YOU.
Thats what Starshine, Rose, The guard, and especially Emberlane felt at that moment, the Tripod was just standing there, staring, hiding in the shadows! The only reason why Ember could even see the Tripod was because of the birds, the damn birds! It was only a matter of time before it would go on a killing spree! “Princess Celest—
BWWAAAAAAAAOWAAAAAAAAAMMMMMmmmMMMH
Now EVERYPONY was silent, the crowed, the main six, the two princesses all had a look of shock before they transformed into complete terror, then a pony began to walk away from it, then another, and then more began to run, Starshine, Rose, Ember, and the guard quickly followed but were interrupted by the Tripod when it let out another ominous and dreadful howl.
BWOOOOOOOOAAOOOOOOEEEEEEEUM
I giant massive beam of light lowered upon them, Starshine looked back to see that the Tripod had activated some sort of massive spot/searchlight but not only that, to Starshines absolute horror, two MORE Tripods appeared with their own giant searchlights! If one was capable of destroying all of Ponyville by itself..she physically shuddered at the thought of what THREE could do in the SAME location!
Starshine looked back to her friends and proceeded to gallop faster, as she was she saw a train ready for ponies to board and escape, along with the train, there were other chariots flying in a desperate attempt to escape but it was all for not, as the chariots were just taken down by the heat rays. They needed to get on the train asap, Starshine looked back at the Tripods one more time and saw that they were deploying tentacles of some sort, she didn’t have time to question the tentacles though, for all she knew It could be extra heat rays! Once they were In the train they saw that the car they were in was almost full, at least 15 more ponies could get in before the doors closed, and once they did the train would immediately start running.
Starshine looked out the window to see the princesses and a couple of royal guards try to delay the Tripods from getting close to the train but every single arrow, spear, and magic bolts just bounced off of the three as if they were shooting play dough at the Tripods, it seemed like they were going to fail until…
WA—BOOOM
WWAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOUM
The Tripod in the middle let out an earth shattering howl as it got hit by the most biggest & powerful magic blast Celestia could give it, the impact of the blast was so powerful that it knocked the Tripod off of its feet and collided with the ground! The Tripod on the left noticed this and walked over to its comrad in an attempt to help it up, but the Teipod on the right had other ideas or should I say…ONE idea in mind.
The train conductor must’ve noticed this as the train began moving, Starshine formed a small but hopeful smile as it seemed they were going to finally escape! Until…
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAP
A quick flash of neon light shined in front of the train and incinerated the train tracks in front of them! All ponies on board didn’t even get time to react before the Train dislodged off the tracks and came hurdling towards ground, Everypony braced for impact but it never came, Everypony opened their eyes and saw that the train was floating in a golden aura, however this aura didn’t last long as it disappeared just a few seconds after it appeared. The train finally made contact with the ground but a lot less forceful as it was going to be, after rolling down the hill for a few seconds the train finally came to a stop as it landed on its side….
Celestia looked down at the train, thankful that she managed to stop it just in time. Now that her little ponies were safe she turned back towards—
STOMP
“SISTER!” Luna shouted, but Celestia didn’t even acknowledge her sister as the giant searchlight of the Tripod beamed down upon her, all she could think of doing was slowly look up to the very Tripod she shot at with her moss powerful blast, and to her horror, I didn’t even leave a scratch.. not even a dent was visible on this thing, and her horror only worsened when it started to lower….
It’s gaze was Cold, Uncaring, Unsympathetic, and lacked any emotion whatsoever and yet…she could almost feel it, like it was judging her…analyzing her…that’s when she realized something, this was the first time she ever felt absolutely and utterly TERRIFIED, not scared..terrified, she was scared at nightmare moon’s return, she was scared at Discords return, she was scared during chrysalis’s attack on canterlot, she was scared during Sombra’s invasion on the crystal empire, she was scared during Tirek’s rampage, but never terrified, the reason? Twilight and her friends would always appear at the nick of time and save the day, Twilight and her friends even when it seemed all hope was lost, would bring back harmony and put things back to normal….but THIS… this situation felt utterly hopeless and thus…she felt terrified, but then she finally uttered three things at the Tripod, “What. Are. You?” Celestia asked in any desperation that the Tripod would answer but instead, a single tentacle emerged from the Tripod and slithered its way towards her.
That’s when she started galloping towards her sister, as she was she thought of two things, 1( get me and my sister to safety via teleportation and 2( we need help, but from who? From who?!…Wait a minute..
Before she could finish her thought, she reached her sister and teleported them to somewhere she hoped would be safe…the Crystal Empire. The tentacle which was mere inches away from Celestia, retracted back to the tripod and it elegantly rose back to full height, as it did it turned back to canterlot, it’s searchlight beaming down upon the city, and proceeded to vaporize canterlot and it’s remaining residents and guards….
Inside of the train, many groans and grunts from ponies could be heard from within the train, just because the impact on the ground was less impactful then it was when it was hurdling, didn’t mean it didn’t hurt when it DID impact the ground but even then, the adrenaline mixed with the desperate attempt to escape didn’t keep them down for to long, “Hey Everypony!” A stallion shouted, Everypony looked up towards the source of the voice and found a pegasus stallion standing outside the door on top of them all, “I can carry you guys out of this door, but I can only carry one at a time” the stallion said, and as he did Everypony nodded in agreement, much to the stallions pleasure, “alright but first, is there any other Pegasus in here?” The stallion asked, four hoofs raised to the air.
“Good now listen closely, I need you four to fly out this door and go to the other cars in case there’s any ponies stuck there, got it?” The stallion ordered, and with nods of conformation the four Pegasus went off, “Alright let’s hurry up Everypony, we don’t have much time!” The stallion said, and thus he began helping ponies out one by one and then him and Starshine both carried out Rose, and then Emberlane, and finally the guard, as they jumped off the car Starshine started to hear something, and it was getting closer…
Until she finally realized that it was the Tripod getting closer! She tried to warn Everypony but it was too late, as the searchlight already shined down on them, letting them know that they’ve been spotted, and to the groups horror a second searchlight shined down on the train, then that’s when they heard it.
BWWAAAAAAAAAOOOOWAAAAAAMMMMMmmmMMMH
“Oh no…no no NO NO NO!” Screamed a stallion, upon looking up, they realized it was the very pegasus who had helped them out of the car, he tried to fly away but it was futile as the Tripods tentacle swooped down faster then he could fly and took him. “NO NO NOOOAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa”, and that’s when they realized that those tentacles weren’t extra heat rays, they were meant to capture them! Starshine looked on at the other ponies the four other Pegasus helped get out, and they started to run, and then the three Pegasus try to fly with only one managing to get away while the other two got snatched by the tentacles, she also watched as the fourth pegasus who is still trying to help a pony looks in utter horror as she realizes that’s she’s been spotted, but the poor mare won’t stop and keeps pulling the pony out, she’s constantly looking back and forth between the Tripod and the pony she carrying until the pony finally gets out and starts running, and the Pegasus mare tries to follow the pony but…she isn’t to fortunate.
Starshine’s look of horror as she sees the mare get captured while screaming absolute bloody murder is quickly interrupted by the sounds of the tentacles ripping and destroying the top of the car’s just so they can snatch the ones that remained inside, her mind filled with more screams as they’re taken away, dear god the screams……
“Hey!” Rose shouted, snapping Starshine out of her horror filled daze, “we need to get out of here like RIGHT NOW!!” Rose shouted with a fearful look. With a nod of conformation she, Rose along Ember and the guard began bolting for the forest in front of them, the Tripods never taking their “eye’s” off of the victims still in the train car’s, once they made it to the forest entrance, no matter how tired or exhausted they were, they still kept going until they were for sure out of the Tripods line of sight, and once they felt like they were…they collapsed taking a heavy breather before looking back, preparing themselves for the carnage they were about to see.
Yet it was eerily quiet, with the only sounds being that of the screams of the ponies who couldn’t escape the Tripods, as well as they heat rays up in canterlot. There were two Tripods capturing ponies near or in the train with a third in the back walking towards the right, possibly to capture or vaporize any ponies who went into the same direction, the group slowly looked up at canterlot, it was up in flames completely with two tripods continuing to vaporize it, the group slowly looked to the left and saw three more Tripods approaching near the hill they were looking at, the ponies that were on the hill upon seeing the Tripods ran in the opposite direction while screaming for there dear lives. The Tripods started vaporizing the ponies almost instantly, setting the trees underneath them ablaze while leaving trails of ash from the ponies they vaporized, and finally what accompanied ALL of this was the Royal Canterlot Siren, a siren that played before or during natural disasters as well as villain attacks, but now? It played to tell any nearby ponies that there is no hope for this place anymore, the Tripods have already taken over, DO NOT COME HERE.
Starshine feared what three could do, and now there were eight of them in. The. Same. Location. The group decided that this was enough and ran deeper into the forest hoping that one of the Tripods didn’t see any ponies going their direction, and they continued running, deeper and deeper into the forest they went, with the siren that filled ponies with dread constantly telling them…
Canterlot is dead.
Author's Note
Hoh hoh that got DARK at the end there! Seriously I feel like out of all the three chapters I’ve currently written, this one is the one I’m the most proud of, of course there’s probably a ton of flaws I missed, but I feel as if I’ve improved a bit….or not depending how you see it. I also should apologize for the THREE MONTH LONG WAIT like holy shit! I probably scared you guys for making you think this was dead!
But yeah the reason I didn’t publish this much sooner is because I didn’t really know how to go about it (plot/story wise) and it REALLY demotivated my enthusiasm on making this, but as you can see I pulled through and WALLA!
And as always feel free to criticize but DONT BE MEAN ABOUT IT!
