Chapters Chapter One: Mysterious Burst of Flame
An excerpt from Equestria Daily went almost unnoticed by most readers:
Flaming Gas Burst From Mars
Reports from the Canterlot Observatory indicate the sighting of a mass of flaming hydrogen gas bursting out of Mars about midnight on the 12th.This flaming gas appeared to be moving with enormous speed towards Earth, but within fifteen minutes, it became invisible.
Twilight Sparkle herself had missed the article, so she was completely ignorant of what would soon become one of the greatest dangers to the pony race. And the purple unicorn would have stayed ignorant until it was to late had her assistant, Spike hadn't informed it to her when she got home that evening.
"Twilight!" welcomed the little purple dragon. "Hi Spike." Twilight greeted back as she entered her tree home. "What do you think of the news from Mars?" Spike asked.
"News?" Twilight asked, puzzled as she sat down on her couch. "What news could there be from a planet 40 million miles from here?"
"An exciting and unusual happening," cried Spike. "A great light-a blaze almost-has burst from the surface of Mars."
Twilight looked at him quizzically, not quite certain that she could share the her assistant's excitement.
Guessing her thoughts, Spike suggested "Why don't we go down two the Canterlot Observatory tonight?"
"Oh I don't know." answered Twilight still puzzled about Spike's new obsession, "Since, when have Spike had ever been interested in Mars ?" Twilight thought to herself. She decided to just accept it, they do live in a library after all, maybe he read a book about Mars and just got obsessed with it. She would like to go to the observatory, but today had been a stressful day for that she nearly spent it all helping AppleJack buck apples.
"Oh come on Twilight!" Spike pleaded, "Please!"
Twilight thought about it some more. Then she finally agreed. "Yeah, why not."
That night at midnight, Twilight was taking her turn at the telescope when she saw a reddish flash around the edge of Mars. "Come quickly, Spike!" she cried.
The young mare never dreamed then that the flash was the launching of an accurately aimed missile from Mars, following the same path to Earth taken by the first one only 24 hours before. Yes, the Things they were sending to the blue sphere were flying swiftly and steadily across 40 million miles to bring much death and destruction to Earth.
"Well, Spike," she said as her assistant turned away from the telescope an hour later, "are the Martians signaling us?" In the darkness of the observatory, the purple dragon couldn't see the mocking smile on Twilight's face.
"Ridiculous!" he cried as he climbed off his step stool. "It is probably some meteorites falling in a heavy shower on Mars, or perhaps a huge volcano exploding."
"But why do you doubt the existence of life on Mars?" Twilight asked.
"The chances of any sort of life there are a million to one," Spike replied. "Remember,Twilight, Mars is 140 million miles from the sun, and the light and heat it get's is barely half of what we get on Earth. Life couldn't possibly survive, for Mars is getting colder and colder. Come on Twilight! You should know these things, don't you read the books about Mars? We live in a Library for Celesta's sake!"
"But there is air and water on Mars," Twilight argued."Wouldn't that support life?"
"Perhaps..perhaps," Spike replied, deep in thought, "but surely not life as advanced as ours."
Little did Twilight and Spike know that night that their planet was being watched closely by beings with greater intelligence than ponies, beings who were just as mortal as ponies, beings who had created instruments and weapons ponies had scarcely dreamed of, beings who watched Earth enviously, and slowly made their plans to leave their dying planet and take over their only hope for survival-a green, fertile planet crowded with what they considered inferior animals.
Other observers on Earth saw the flame burst forth from Mars that night, the night after that, for a total of one month. Why the shots stopped after that one month, nopony on Earth attempted to explain.
Meanwhile, the missiles the Martians had fired sped earthward at many miles a second, nearer and nearer. But even with this death and destruction hanging over them, ponies went about their daily activities, peaceful and safe, giving only an occasional glance at the bright red dot of light in the heavens called Mars.
Chapter Two: The Landing of the Martians
Then came the night of the first falling star-a line of flame high in the sky, traveling with a hissing sound and leaving a greenish streak behind it. Most observers thought that another meteorite had fallen-an event of such little importance that nopony took the trouble to look for it the night it fell.
But Spike, who had trouble sleeping that night, saw the shooting star. He tried to wake up Twilight, but the unicorn was to deep in sleep that it was hard to wake her up. So Spike decided to sneak out for the night and set out along Valley commons-a stretch of open land-between Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest to find it. And find it the little purple dragon did, near the sand pits.
An enormous hole had been made by the impact of the Thing, and the sand and gravel had been flung violently in every direction, forming high mounds visible a mile away. The small evergreen bushes, known as heather, were on fire all around the hole, and the Thing itself lay almost entirely buried in the sand.
As Spike reached the edge of the hole, he looked down and saw one section of the Thing partly uncovered. It seemed to be a huge cylinder about 90 feet in diameter, and was caked over by a thick gray crust. Since it was still extremely hot from it's flight, Spike was unable to get close enough to examine it.
As he stood on the edge of the pit at sunrise, the sounds of faint movements came from inside the cylinder. "An unequal cooling of the surface," muttered Spike, never dreaming that the Thing might be hallow!
Suddenly, some of the grayish crust covering the meteorite began falling off the uncovered end of the cylinder. Spike was disturbed. "Why is it falling only from the end of the cylinder?" he asked himself. "If the meteorite is cooling, the crust should be falling from the whole body."
And then he saw the circular top slowly...slowly rotating on it's body, then gave a sudden jerk an inch or two outward.
Great Celestia!" he cried. "The cylinder is hollow, with an end that screws out! Something or someone inside is unscrewing the top. They must be roasting to death and trying to escape! But where did they come fr-?" And then the realization hit him. "That flash on Mars!" Spike exclaimed. "Oh, that poor creature trapped inside! I must free him!"
And forgetting the heat, Spike ran down the embankment of the sand pit to try to help turn the cylinder. But the radiation that the Thing gave off stopped the little dragon before he could burn his hands. Spike froze for a moment, then scrambled out of the pit and set off running wildly into Sweet Apple Acres to get help.
The first few ponies he approached on the way to Sweet Apple Acres thought of the purple dragon as a raving lunatic and hurried on their way. Spike finally arrived at Sweet Apple Acres and found Apple Jack pulling a large wagon full of apples.
"Gee whiz, Spike! What are you doing here at this hour?" Applejack asked.
"Long story," Spike replied catching his breath. "But never mind that! Did you see the shooting star last night? It's out on Valley Commons."
"Great Celestia!" cried Applejack. "A fallen meteorite!"
"But it's more than a meteorite," explained Spike. "It's a cylinder-a hollow cylinder-and there's something inside!"
Applejack froze, letting all that she heard sink into her head.
"What did you say?" she gasped
Spike told the orange earth pony all that he had seen. When the purple dragon was done, Applejack unhinged herself from the wagon, and the the earth pony ran off down the road with Spike riding on her back, toward Valley Commons.
The cylinder was still lying in the same position, but the sounds inside had ceased.
Spike and Applejack rapped on the crusty cylinder,Spike with a stick and Applejack with her hoofs, but got no response.
"They've either fainted, or they're dead!" whispered Spike.
"No! NO! Spike!" shouted Applejack. "We must find those little critters alive!" Then bucking again with her back hooves, Applejack called to the opening, "Hold on in there whoever y'all are. We'll get you out. We'll go for help."
They ran for Ponyville and went up and down the streets in the bright sunlight, shoutung the news to the pony folk who were heading toward their daily destinations, and to ponies opening their bedroom window, including Rarity. One of Princess Celestia's guards, pegasi, who was on patrol, flew back to Canterlot Castle, to report the news to the nearby city.
Twilight heard the news an hour later from the lips of a young colt while she was on her search for Spike.
"And," the colt added, "colts and stallions from allover have already gone out to the sand pits to see the dead ponies from Mars."
Twilight was startled, but she lost no time in going out to the sand pits herself, hoping to find Spike there.
Since the papers had already come out with headlines shouting, "A Message from Mars!" hundreds of ponies were crowded around the pit.
Twilight made her way to the edge of the pit and saw half a dozen unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi working below, including Applejack and her Brother, Big Macintosh. Spike was also there as well.
A pegasi whom Twilght recognized as Rainbow Dash, was standing on the Cylinder.
"Good afternoon, Twilight!" welcomed Spike when he saw the purple unicorn at the edge of the crowd.
"SPIKE! Where have you been?!" scolded Twilight back "Don't you know that you nearly scared me to death?!"
"Gee nice to see you too." answered Spike in a sarcastic tone. "Anyway I'm sorry about that Twi." Spike apologized "It's just that..well you see what I mean right?"
Twilight nodded and accepted his apology. "Now I was going to tell you that we've been hearing faint movements inside, but the other ponies can't seem to open it. Not even the unicorns could unscrew it with their magic! We shall just have to wait until it opens by itself."
Feeling somewhat disappointed herself, Twilight moved away through the crowd, when suddenly from the edge of the pit, she heard loud voices and felt the crowd pushing back.
"It's a-movin'," shouted a colt as he ran by her. "It's a-screwin' and a-screwin' out. I don't like it one bit. I'm goin' home, I am."
When Twilight reached the edge, she heard a peculiar humming sound coming from the Thing, and she saw the end of the cylinder being unscrewed...automatically from within!
Just then, somepony in the crowd pushed against Twilight, and as she turned to retain her balance and keep herself from falling into the pit to find that the lid had fallen completely, and now lay in the gravel. Spike and the other ponies were scampering (or flying) out of the pit. Spike ran over toward Twilight to watch with her.
Twilight guessed she expected to see a pony come out from the Thing-Not exactly a pony like her, but pony of some sort nevertheless. As she gazed into the shadows, the purple unicorn saw some gray wavy movements, one above the other, and two luminous circles-like eyes.Then something resembling a little gray snake, about as thick as a cane, coiled up out of the middle of the form and wriggled and writhed its way through the air. First one, then another and another.
Twilight drew back from the edge of the pit, staring, still unable to tear her eyes away from the many tentacles that were now projecting from this grayish mass. Horror showed on every face around her as most of the ponies turned and ran.
The purple unicorn stood petrified, staring, as a big grayish rounded bulk about the size of a bear rose out of the cylinder. As the last rays of the sun hit it, it glistened like wet leather.
Two large, dark-colored eyes stared back at Twilight, and the surface above them was flat, with no hint of a ridge where eyebrows usually grew. The mass that surrounded those eyes was round-almost like a face. Below the eyes was a strange V-shaped mouth, with it's pointed upper lip quivering and saliva dripping from it as the creature trembled and panted, almost as if in a convulsion. There was no chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip.
As one of its thin tentacles gripped the edge of the cylinder and another swayed in the air, the monster suddenly toppled over the rim of the cylinder and fell into the pit. It's fall sounded like a loud leathery thud. The creature gave a strange cry, and immediately another of them appeared at the opening of the cylinder.
Twilight turned and ran wildly towards a group of trees, Spike followed, stumbling as he ran, for Spike could not tear his eyes from the pit. The field around the pit was dotted with ponies standing, like Twilight and Spike, staring at these creatures in fascination and terror. Twilight's body was paralyzed with fear, but her brain was sparked with curiosity about these creatures and the cylinder in which they had came to Earth from Mars.
Chapter Three: The Heat-Ray
Twilight and Spike didn't dare go back towards the pit, but they both longed to gaze into it. They began walking in a big curve, seeking some higher ground from which they could see into the pit, but not be seen by the Martians.
Once, a leash of black tentacles, like the arms of an octopus, reached above the pt, then immediately disappeared. Soon afterwards, a thin rod appeared, rising joint by joint. At the tip of the rod was a disc that spun around in a wobbling motion.
By, now most of the ponies on the common had gathered in two groups on opposite sides of the pit. Twilight and Spike stationed themselves on a small hill, slightly higher than the crowds of ponies, for a long while, as the sun set and afterward, nothing further happened. This gave the crowd new confidence, and small groups of ponies began to move towards the pit.
At this moment, the PonyVille Mayer, Bon-Bon, Lyra and a green unicorn, who was waving a white flag with his unicorn magic, came out from behind the a tree and headed for the pit.
"What do you plan to do?" Spike called to the Mayer.
"We've had a small town meeting down at Town Hall," She explained, "and we've decided that the Martians are obviously intelligent creatures even though their bodies are monstrous. So we are going to show them that we, too, are intelligent."
Before Spike had a chance to comment on the Mayer's explanation, a flash of light came out of the pit and three long, powerful puffs of green flame rose up one after the other into the air, followed by a faint hissing sound. The hissing changed to a loud humming noise.
The humming was revealed as coming from something humped, or domed-shaped, as it slowly rose out of the pit. Flickers of white flame leaped out from it and towards the the four ponies with the white flag. In an instant, each pony turned to fire, staggered, and fell!
Twilight and Spike stood staring, hardly realizing that this noiseless, blinding flame brought death as it leaped from pony to pony in this group and then continued on from stallion to mare to foal around the common. Pegasi took to the sky in vain, only to get caught in another fiery flare and began falling one by one to the ground. The flares brought fiery destruction as well, as they leaped swiftly from the trees to bushes to distant wooden buildings.
All this happened so swiftly that Twilight and Spike stood motionless, dumbfounded and dazzled by the flashes of light. If that flame, or Heat-Ray, as Twilight calls it, had made a full circle, it would have caught both Twilight and Spike in its path. But it passed them by, thus sparing their lives.
Twilight gazed at the spot where the little group with the white flag had stood only minutes before. This little group no longer existed. The ponies around them had ether fled or had been protected by high sand hills as the Heat-Ray passed over their heads. But as the trees above them caught fire, sparks and burning twigs fell on them. Hats and dresses caught on fire. Shrieks and shouts filled the air as stallions, mares, and foals pushed their way to reach the the road to PonyVille, crushing and trampling each other in the darkness.
Twilight suddenly realized that she and Spike were alone on this dark common, Spike was to traumatized by all the death and destruction that had happened to notice. Twilight pushed in to the purple dragon to snap him back to focus. Spike shook his head as if coming out of a trance. He then looked at Twilight and hugged her front leg sobbing. And Twilight began to feel sorry that Spike had to see all the death and destruction that recently taking place. However, they both thanked Celestia that they were saved.
But soon both Twilight and Spike began to feel helpless and unprotected. With a panic and terror they've never known before, they both turned and ran, Spike riding on Twilight's back. Twilight stumbled through the heather, almost crashing blindly into trees, Spike tried desperately to hang on to her neck as not to fall off, passing through more than forty bodies, burned and destroyed beyond recognition.Twilight ran until she could go no further. Then the purple unicorn staggered and collapsed on to the ground with Spike still on her back.
Spike tried to wake Twilight up. And when he did Twilight almost asked him if it were all a dream. But when she noticed their location she already answered her own question.
They continued their way back to PonyVille. Everything around them-the night, their home ahead, train passing in the distance-everything was so serene to them, so normal, so familiar. But behind them...
When Twilight and Spike reached PonyVille , they noticed their five friends chatting near Sugar Cube Corner. The Twilight immediately went straight into their direction.
When the five ponies noticed their friends's arrival, they were shocked by their haggard and dirty appearance.
"What news form the common?" Twilight gasped weakly.
"Haven't you just came from there?" asked Fluttershy softly hovering above the ground seeing the direction from which they had came. "But never mind that! What happened to you?!" she asked with deep concern.
"Th..the.. the Martians!" Spike began stuttering. "And.. the ray! And the mayor and-"
"Now calm down darling!" said Rarity who was wearing a fancy blue dress. "Why don't you go home, get cleaned up, and we'll come visit you. That way you talk about when you've settled down."
The six ponies agreed, and each went to their intended destinations.
Later that evening at Twilight's house, the ponies were having a spaghetti dinner that Pinkie Pie made as Twilight and Spike told their friends everything that they have experienced. As they spoke about the heat-ray and all the death it had caused, fear began to spread on each of their visitor's faces.
"But I don't understand it!" cried AppleJack. "What on earth (or Mars) could have drove them to cause such senseless destruction? I really thought that after all we have done they would be friendly"
"They might have gotten scared by us." answered Twilight with uncertainty. "What they did was foolish but probably they have came to Earth not expecting to find life on it."
"Well." said Rarity utterly disturbed by what she had heard. "I hope they don't become an actual threat to us."
"I really doubt that." said Spike trying to comfort her. "They can scarcely move. I read that the force of gravity on Mars is three times weaker than on earth. They'll most likely keep control of the pit and kill ponies who come near it-" Spike noticed that Rarity almost burst out in terror at his statement. "But I can assure you that they cannot get out."
"I hope not." spoke Rarity, trying calm down.
And the seven friends continued the evening eating their dinner quietly. Not knowing that this would be the last civilized dinner they would have for many strange and horrible days.
Chapter Four: The Second Cylinder Falls
Throughout Equestria that Friday evening, ponies were having dinner,store-owning ponies closed up their shops, fouls were being put to bed, young couples were wandering the lanes, and students were sitting over their books. The daily routine of working, eating, drinking, and sleeping went on as it had for years-as though no planet Mars existed in the sky.
But in the houses facing the Commons in PonyVille, ponies stayed awake watching the heath burn from the Martians' Heat-Ray.
Now and again the Heat-Ray swept the common, catching a few adventurous souls who had gone out in the darkness to see the Martians. But blackened bodies, lying twisted in death, were all that remained of them.
All night long the Martians were hammering and stirring, sleepless and untiring at work on the machine that would bring more death and destruction. Now and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled out from the cylinder up to sky.
About eleven o'clock columns of Princess Luna's soldiers came through PonyVille and Sweet Apple Acres and formed a cordon around the edge of the common.
A few seconds after midnight, a group of ponies on Chertsey Road outside of PonyVille saw a star fall from the sky into Ever-free Forest to the northeast. The star had a greenish color, and caused a silent but bright flash of light. This was the second cylinder;
