Aliens: Consuming Equestria
Chapter 3

The serpent creature screeched. The eight mares screamed. Fluttershy, Rarity and Lyra all ran out of the room (preferably to empty their stomachs upon seeing an open chest). The five other mares huddled together in fear as the serpent scrambled out of the open chest and ran in a random direction as fast as its little legs could carry it. As the serpent disappeared, the mares calmed slightly, but were soon overcome with sadness at their friend’s death. They all rushed to his side in tears.

“Please Doctor, wake up,” Derpy begged. She shook him by the shoulders, urging him to wake up from his eternal sleep. He did not respond.

The other three mares tried to return, but no matter how sorrowful they were, the open chest wound was too much for them to handle. Fluttershy had seen many animals die, and she became upset with every passing, but she accepted that it had to happen. Not once had she seen a pony be so violently ripped open and killed by such a small, horrid little creature.

As the mares stood in sorrow and disbelief next to Time Turner, a small part of Twilight awoke in her brain. This small influence reasoned with the rest of her mind and eventually overtook it. It was the part of her brain that wanted desperately to contain, research and learn from the small alien that had erupted from Turner’s chest. She desperately fought it, reasoning that grieving and planning a funeral was much more important. Unfortunately, she lost the battle.

It was not till an hour later that the mares felt that they could calm themselves. The mares put Turner’s body upstairs underneath a thin blanket for the time being. A funeral was likely going to be held today as ponies are surprisingly good at planning things only hours before. It was almost dark, but the dark wasn’t going to stop them from giving Turner a funeral. Cremation was a common way for ponies to go as they believed it helped the soul to leave and go on to paradise.

Suddenly, Twilight saw something in the corner of her eye. The table in the corner of the room definitely moved slightly on its own. Spike was still holed up at Rarity’s with Sweetie Belle. He was told not to come back on his own, so the table couldn’t have been moved by Spike.

Cautiously, Twilight crept up to the table, curious about the small but strange anomaly. When she reached the table, she saw a small, pale creature run past her and up the stairs. Of course! How could she have forgotten about the alien!

“Going ta the bathroom Twi?” Applejack asked as she saw Twilight rush upstairs.

“Uh, yea! Sure am!” Twilight called back before continuing up the stairs.

When she reached the top, she just caught a glimpse of the creature run into her bedroom. ‘I have you now’ she thought.

She slowly snuck up to her bedroom door, hoping to take the creature by surprise. She peeped into the room and saw the creature looking out of the window. It was significantly bigger than she had remembered. She could also see it a lot more clearly. It had a pale, chitin-like outer layer. It didn’t have any visible eyes and it had rather thin legs and arms for its limbs. It was able to stand on two legs rather easily, but would occasionally go on all fours for more balance. It had no lips, only a menacingly sharp set of teeth. Saliva was dripping from its maw, making it easy to track. It was growing so fast, Twilight could almost see it getting bigger.

Twilight silently crept up behind the creature and grabbed an empty vase. She reached above the creature and brought the vase down on it. Before it knew what was happening, it was surrounded by the empty vase. Twilight could hear and feel it trying to escape by attacking the sides of the vase. It was surprisingly strong, and Twilight had to struggle to keep it down. She frantically looked for something to put under the creature to keep it in. Eventually, she laid eyes on a book on the small bedside table. She levitated it over with her magic and placed it beside the windowsill. A thought suddenly struck her. ’Why didn’t I just suspend the creature with her magic?’ Twilight mentally facehoofed and suspended the vase with her magic. She then plucked the creature out of the vase and trotted downstairs with her capture, which was angrily screeching and screaming, in tow.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, the screeching was not unnoticed by her friends. Most of who acted rather negatively.

Rarity’s mood darkened as she saw it.

“That horrid little beast! We should destroy it!”

“What?” Twilight exclaimed in utter shock at the suggestion.

“You cannot seriously consider letting it off! It murdered one of our friends without remorse! It must be punished! Put it down I say!”

“Wait! We can’t do that. We don’t even know what it is.”

“Surely it does not matter?”

“Yes it does Rarity! If it suits you, I am giving it to Neighland Yutani for research.” Rarity knew that she couldn’t disagree with that. Neighland Yutani had discovered most animals in Equestria, and no animal that even went in ever came out.

“Fine. I hope it is never seen outside of that awful facility again.”

“But Twilight, what about Turner?” Pinkie complained “You have to come to the funeral. He was our friend.” Pinkie pouted for emphasis.

“Of course I’m coming Pinkie. I never said I would do it today.” Pinkie brightened up as much as she could (as much as she could in the current situation).

Twilight quickly dashed off into the kitchen and found a glass jar. She held the creature in place, lowered the jar over it and placed a strengthening spell on the jar. She also froze the jar in place so the creature couldn’t escape. She would find a box with holes in it later. The funeral was happening soon and everypony had been invited to come.

A small brown bunny hopped out of a bush it had been resting in and sniffed the air. There were other animals nearby, and quite a few that would want to eat the bunny for dinner.

The bunny was living in a pony’s home on the edge of the Everfree Forest. He had been staying there ever since a yellow Pegasus had found him lying tired on the grass. It had been two weeks of absolute bliss. He got fed every morning and afternoon. He had a nice little hutch to retreat to every night. He even got to run around free with other bunnies.

Today, the Pegasus hadn’t returned home to feed them, so the bunny went off into the nearby woods to eat. He decided that a look around the area would be a relaxing exercise for the day.

The bunny began to chomp on some grass when he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He sniffed the air, but all he could smell was grass, dirt and some faraway animals. He went back to eating, dismissing the rustling as the wind picking up.

Meanwhile, a dirt covered Hicks was contemplating the creature before him. He had a crudely made spear in one hand and his other hand on his pistol, just in case any bigger creatures attacked him. It was certainly a bunny, but its size was incredibly small. Its limbs were practically sticks and its torso looked starved. It was no bigger than his index finger!

‘There’s no point in killing this and eating it,’ Hicks thought. ‘It could barely feed Newt on its own!’

Hicks slowly side stepped around the bunny. He didn’t want to cause a disturbance and possibly alert the whole forest to his presence. He held his breath as if it were an alarm that would set off if he failed to keep it in.

His boot gently rolled onto a small twig behind him. It snapped. The bunny immediately turned and saw him right behind it. Despite being an animal, Hicks could definitely saw fear in the bunny’s eyes, as if it were a sentient being with true feelings that he could also feel rather than just basic sign language and a good memory to copy sign language.

Immediately, the bunny ran off in the opposite direction. ‘Shit!’ Hicks cursed as the bunny ran off possibly to warn other animals. He had to act fast if they were going to eat anything.

Hicks began to speed up his pace as he crept through the thick forest. He had to find something bigger, perhaps on the edge of the forest. He now began to run to the edge in hopes that a larger animal may be grazing in the open. The forest around him was a blur as he dodged and weaved in and out of trees to his target location.

Finally, the blinding light of the sun hit him as he emerged from the forest. Immediately, he stopped himself so as not to draw attention, that is if the other animals hadn’t already been warned about him.

Hicks turned to his left and laid eyes on a small group of deer grazing as he suspected. The sun was slowly approaching the horizon, so the animals were eating for the last time today. This would be Hicks’ last chance to hunt today before all the animals disappeared to their abodes.

Hicks slowly approached the deer with both his hands on the spear. He made sure to keep inside the tree-line so he had less chance of being spotted. He counted six deer, one of which was a buck. The buck was likely the leader of the group and would protect the does with his life. It was common animal behaviour to defend each other. Hicks crept up behind the closest doe, pulled his spear back and patiently waited.

He waited for the most opportune time to strike, preferably when the doe had its head down and when the buck wasn’t looking. But this doe was suspicious. It had caught his scent and was trying to find him.

In its curiosity, the doe turned around to face the tree-line. It would have spotted Hicks if he hadn’t noticed that he was about to be found. He quickly thrust the spear horizontally into the doe’s neck. It briefly cried out in agony but the blood soon filled its throat, silencing it. The other deer had lifted their heads to see one of their own get killed violently by a long stick with a sharp stone on the end of it.

Panic set in and the other does scattered with the buck covering their retreat. They already knew that the doe was dead, and there was no point in trying to get it back now. Hicks would have just killed them if they tried to attack. Hicks and the others, except Bishop, were hungry and the fruits in the opposite forest were bright and colourful and therefore possibly toxic. Meat was therefore preferable at the moment.

The doe was by this point dead on the floor. Satisfied that he had been successful in his task, Hicks began to carry the dead animal back to the dropship.

Everypony gathered around the pyre that stood in the centre of town. Some were sorrowful, even crying. Others were that and confused. Confused about what had happened and why. Nonetheless, all were respectful. Derpy had lived with Turner for a long time and had been hit the hardest. She stood in the front of the crowd, her eyes wet with tears.

Mayor Mare stood next to the pyre, another pony with a lit torch besides her. The sky was gloomy and grey, only adding to the depression that ran deep in the crowd. Atop the pyre was a coffin, ready to be burnt with its inhabitant.

“We are all mournful at the loss of this good pony,” the Mayor began. “He lived well and protected those he loved. He was humble and kind to all others at no cost. His passing is a tragedy to us all, as we knew him as a friend, and a loyal one.”
The Mayor nodded to the pony beside her.

“The least we can do now is help him on his journey. We part soul from body with Celestia’s benevolent flame and pray for him. May he receive Celestia’s blessing in death as he did in life.”

The pony beside her lit the pyre with the torch. It burned with a bright, calm flame that engulfed the pyre and the coffin. All the ponies stood in heart-broken silence as the flame began to roar.

“He was an honourable pony, and we honour his passing.”

The flame slowly consumed the pyre and coffin, reducing them to naught but dust. Embers danced in the wind above the fire before fading away as quickly as they had appeared. The flame wandered with the wind and in the ponies’ eyes, like tiny furnaces in blacksmith workshop.

After half an hour, the flame had consumed most of the wood and was dying down. Some ponies had left and even more were still leaving. Those that remained were the closest of Turner’s friends, Derpy included. She still sat at the front, head hung low. Soon, she was the only one left apart from six other mares.

Twilight placed her hoof on Derpy’s shoulder. Derpy only looked over at her, her eyes clearly telling her that she needed more time. Accepting this, Twilight led her friends away from the fire.

The bunny ran in fear of his life. That thing could’ve had him! It was right behind him, with a spear! It was no animal of simple wit, it was clever and dangerous. He had to tell the yellow Pegasus. But how? Angel seemed to communicate somewhat with her. Perhaps he could tell Angel to pass on the message?

The bunny desperately hopped at full speed towards the cottage. It was getting very dark now and predators emerge at this hour to hunt unsuspecting prey.

At last, the bunny made it to the cottage. By this point, he was breathing heavily from his exhaustion. Angel was outside, relaxing in a small white sun bed that very nearly camouflaged him. He immediately saw the bunny and became curious. He hopped off of the sun bed and bounced over to the bunny.

“What’s wrong?” He asked in the universal animal language. It was really just a bunch of gestures and noises that made up a small, simple sentence.

“I saw *huff* a big monkey thing! *Huff* It had a spear and was about to kill me!”

“Are you sure?” Angel asked. “I never took monkeys for the carnivorous type.”

“This wasn’t an ordinary monkey,” the bunny replied. “It had clothes like the ponies sometimes do. It was smeared in mud the disguised its scent. It snuck up on me like a wolf!”

“What do you want me to do about it?” Angel asked curiously.

“Warn the ponies. You can talk to that yellow Pegasus. You have to tell her about it! It could be dangerous to Ponyville! There might even be more!” Angel was beginning to see the importance of this strange new creature. It was intelligent, could make basic weapons and wore clothes.

“Okay. I will tell Fluttershy about this tomorrow. Right now, she just got back from a ceremony and has gone to bed. You’d better be right about this!”

Fluttershy had awoken late that day. When she saw the time, she worried about her animal friends and rushed downstairs to check on them after she got ready for the day ahead.

Thankfully, the animals had taken to grazing on the grass before she came down. Angel, however, stood on the table in the living room, waiting for her. Fluttershy knew immediately that he wanted her attention.

“Why hello Angel. Did you want something?”

Angel nodded. He pointed to the forest off in the distance past Ponyville. He then made a gesture that involved putting one paw to the floor and the other above his head. He then grabbed a matchstick and pretended to look menacing with it before thrusting it forward. Normally Fluttershy would warn him against playing with matches, but after Angel had finished his little act, she more or less knew what he was talking about.

“Are you saying that there is a very tall thing with a spear was roaming the forest?”

Angel nodded in confirmation. That worried her. If it was dangerous (and she knew Angel wouldn’t have told her if it wasn’t) then it could place all of Ponyville in danger.

Fluttershy was of course still suffering the aftermath of yesterday’s events, so she was both worried and upset about the news. This meant that there was danger of more deaths, and she couldn’t handle that. Two new creatures in one week seemed suspicious, but Fluttershy didn’t notice that. All she thought about now was taking care of her animals and telling Twilight what Angel had just told her.

Author's Note

I listened to this on a loop whilst writing the funeral scene.

Also, I love reading comments. If you want to see something in the story and it fits, I can always try and squeeze it in somewhere!