War of the Worlds

It was midnight, the twelfth of August. The red planet of Maretia was high in the sky, I saw a luminous green gas leap from it’s surface, it came for us, an invisible, impending doom coming to destroy our home. I watched as another left the planet, starting on it’s way. That was how it was, for ten nights and days, green flares bursting from Maretia and hurtling towards us. A beautiful, yet deadly sight. I consulted Stargazer, the astronomer,  she assured me that we were in no danger. She said that there could be no life on that remote, forbidding planet...

The next night, we saw the missile streak close to our world, across the sky, trailing the green gas. At first, everyone thought it a normal shooting star, but we awoke the next morning to find a cylinder embedded into the ground on Horsesham common. Stargazer went to examine what we all saw, the immense heat threw her back, before she could burn herself on the metal. Suddenly, the top began rotating, revolving, unscrewing... Some feared there was a pony inside, trying to escape, but they too were thrown away from the cylinder.

It seemed so strange, that, after this, everypony continued about their business, as if there was nothing happening, as if it was an evening like any other... I listened, the faint sound of shunting trains was softened by distance, almost into melody...

It all seemed so safe and tranquil.